The tragedies of Euripides in English verse. By Arthur S. Way

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PROFESSOR J. S.WILL

THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES.

THE

TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES

IN ENGLISH VERSE

BY

ARTHUR S. WAY, M.A.

Author of " The Iliad of Homer done into English Verse," and
" The Odyssey of Homer done into English Verse."

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

3Lanlion:
MACMILLAN AND CO,, LIMITED.

AND NEW YORK.
1896.

PA

3S7sr

BARNICOTT AND PEARCE
PRINTERS

805841

PREFACE.

The plays contained in the present volume have been, on
the whole, the least read of Euripides' writings. This is the
more to be regretted, inasmuch as they comprise some of the
most chara6teristic work of this poet, and as a knowledge of
them is indispensable to a right appreciation of his genius
and his influence. The Eiectra shows his peculiar methods
in sharp contrast with those of Aeschylus and Sophocles :
the Children of Herakles contains one of the noblest female
chara(5lers in all literature : in the Daughters of Troy are
some of the most brilliant choral odes in all the Greek
Drama : the Madness of Herakks has been (unhappily for
succeeding translators) already given to English readers by
Browning in Aristophanes' Apology, as a representative play
of Euripides.

I have not, in my Introdudtion, aimed at giving anything
approaching a complete survey of Euripides' literary method
and of the ethical tendency of his works. This would have
been impossible within so limited a space, and superfluous, in
many respedts, for thoughtful readers. I have restricted my-
self to certain aspecfts of his work which, as it seems to me,
have been sometimes misunderstood or misrepresented.
These happen also to be the very features in which his
originality is most marked, and in which he diverges most
widely from his great rivals. An exhaustive treatment of our
author would require a large volume, such as has been al-
ready given to French students by Professsr Paul Decharme.

vi PREFA CE.

Euripide et I'Esprit deson Theatre is an admirable book, inter-
esting and thorough, appreciative yet judicial, marked by
ripe scholarship, fine literary taste, and original thought.
No such work has been produced by any English scholar on
any Greek poet ; and, till some of our brilliant commentators
shall cease for a while to " hunt old trails," and shall essay
a task which has long been waiting for a competent hand,
Professor Decharme's volume must remain, for English as
much as for French readers, the standard book on Euripides.

Some remarks on comparatively minor points, as the
dramatic relevance of Euripides' choruses, and his use of
the detts ex machittd, I have postponed to the concluding
volume.

I have to express my grateful acknowledgments to Professor
Tyrrell for most kind assistance in revising the Daughters of
Troy, and for other invaluable suggestions.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

The position of Euripides in literature may fairly be called
unique. Other great writers, not only of antiquity, but of
modern times, have, when once immediate posterity has
countersigned the verdidt of their contemporaries which
allotted them a place amongst the immortals, thereafter held
it as by unassailable right. Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer,
are but examples of a multitude whose crowns have not only
never been challenged, but have gathered lustre with the
lapse of ages. The eighteenth-century eclipse of Shakspeare
is, in our own literature, the one striking exception to the
rule. Yet this phenomenon, due to a transient foreign liter-
ary influence, was but the temporary reversal of a verdicil
which had not been as yet confirmed by long prescription.
But it has been the singular fate of Euripides, after more than
two thousand years of intelledlual sovereignty, to find him-
self within the last hundred years assailed as thinker, as
poet, as moralist, as dramatic artist, by a sturdy phalanx of
very positive scholar-critics, who seem for some time to have
carried with them at least the tacit acquiescence of the Uni-
versities. The vituperative phase of their opposition has
indeed passed by ; but the note of judicial condemnation is
still heard from some whose learning invests their judgment
with a certain authority which makes it no light matter to
diff"er from them.

viii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

That with Sophocles the dramatic art of Greece reached
its culminating point of perfection, and that Euripides led,
if he did not precipitate, its decadence, that he banished the
ideal from his stage, that he was sensational, sophistical,
sceptical, that he tried to compensate for povert}' of con-
struction by florid elaboration of detail — these are still
almost the commonplaces, the preliminary axioms, of com-
parative dramatic criticism with certain Greek scholars. It
is no part of my intention here to combat these views in
detail. The translator who introduces an author to the
English reader thereby invites him to judge for himself, but
at the same time to bear in mind that the original is every-
where noble, felicitous, and musical to a degree to which
no translator can hope to attain. The reader who has
heard that Schlegel called the Electra "of all Euripides'
plays the very vilest," may examine for himself the work, a few
lines of which paralysed the hands uplifted to destroy con-
quered Athens. When Donaldson stigmatizes him as " a
bad citizen and an unprincipled man, a dramatist who de-
graded the moral and religious dignity of his own sacred
profession," it is sufficient to ask the reader to find, if he
can, in the poet's own pages a justification for such a dia-
tribe.

But, as the general reader can hardly be aware how very
modern a thing is this revised estimate of Euripides, to how
large an extent it is coeval with this age of emendation and
philological study of classical texts, it seems not out of place,
while giving a brief account of his life and work, to dwell a
little on the view taken of him in times when spe<5tators and
readers had far more complete data for forming a corredt
judgment than we can ever hope to have, to show how
widely this view extended and how long it prevailed, and to
suggest some explanation of this latter-day tendency to
reverse the verdi(5t of the ages.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. ix

Birth and
Childhood.

The traditional day of Euripides' birth was of
all days that which should have most appro-
priately given light to a Greek patriot-poet's
eyes, the day whereon, in 480 b.c, the great sea-fight of
Salamis rolled away for ever the nightmare-dread of en-
slavement to Asian despotism, and assured to Greece the
right to live thenceforth her own life, and to achieve her
high intelledtual destiny. The child's first cry mingled with
the triumphant cheers of the victorious crews and the rap-
turous thanksgivings of those in whose defence they had
fought — of the old fathers, the helpless women and children,
huddled together in the little rugged isle of Salamis.

His father was named Mnesarchus (or Mnesarchides), his
mother Kleito. They must have been wealthy, for their son
possessed not only considerable property, which no man
could have made by literature, but also, what was especially
rare then, a valuable library. They must have been well-
born, for it is on record that Euripides took a prominent
part as a boy in certain festivals of Apollo for which anyone
of mean birth would have been ineligible. But because, as
it would seem, some of the surplus produce from their
country property occasionally appeared in the Athenian
market, what may have been a light jest at the time was by
the malice of Aristophanes perverted (some forty or fifty
years later) into a persistent allegation that Euripides'
mother was a vegetable-hawker.

The poet's childhood was passed amid scenes which were
in themselves an inspiration. He watched while, day by
day, from the ruins of that Athens which the Persians had
made a heap of ashes, there rose a new city, greater,
stronger, and more beautiful by far than that for which the
men of Marathon and Salamis had fought. Athens had by
her warUke enterprise become the head of the confederacy
which the Ionian seaboard states and islands formed for

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

mutual defence against the Persians. When Euripides was
eight years old, the common treasury of the allies was trans-
ferred from Delos to Athens, and, as some of them found it
more convenient to make their contributions in money than
in men and ships, the imperial city found herself with vast
sums at her disposal. Her obligation to keep the fleet and
army of the confederacy in efficiency discharged, she did not
hesitate to apply the surplus of the revenue and of the spoils
of Persia to her own strengthening and adorning, So the
boy's earliest memories were of the construdtion of magnifi-
cent harbours and docks, of the rising of the Long Walls
which linked Athens with her ports, of the new-born
splendour of the temple-crowded Acropolis, of colonnades
whose walls flushed bright with pictures of battles by land
and sea, of gleaming statues that day by day were multiplied,
till the Gods and heroes seemed to outnumber the men of
the city, of spacious gymnasia, of humming law-courts, and
— of more interest than all, had he known it, to himself — the
vast sweep of the hewn-stone seats and the gigantic stage
of the Great Theatre of Dionysus. He beheld the creation
of all these ; he was an eye-witness of the transformation
of Athens into something that far transcended Homer's
fairest visions of " goodly-builded tov/ns."

With the growth of the city came a stir of life, a quickening
of commercial enterprise, an awakening of thought, which
were also new. Merchants from Egypt, from Spain, from
the Black Sea, and from all islands and lands that lie be-
tween these, artificers from Tyre, artists, poets, and philoso-
phers from wherever Greek was spoken, all thcHe brought
their wealth, their cunning, their wisdom, to the feet of
Athens. As though this were not enough to stimulate the
mind and to make the pulses leap, through all the years of
his boyhood the Dionysiac Theatre resounded with immortal
verse and rang with glorious song. He was eight years old

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xi

when the vast audience thrilled with triumph and shouted

for rapture as Aeschylus' Persians renewed for them the great

day of Salamis. He was twelve when the victorious generals

of Athens, appointed judges of a contest between giants,

awarded to Sophocles the vidtory over Aeschylus.

All these influences were silently moulding

his genius, and fostering powers as vet un-

, 11, , . ,^ . , ' vocation,

comprehended by himself, certainly unsus-

pedted by his parents, save, perhaps, that they may have

come to regard him as not an ordinary lad who would follow

unquestioningly his father's vocation. Some tokens of a

restless ambition may have moved them to consult oracle

or soothsayer touching their son's future. This was the

answer they received : —

" A son shalt thou have, O son of Mnesarchus, whom all shall

acclaim
With honour, a son who shall win the renown of a glorious

name,
Who shall bind on his brows the grace of the wreaths of

hallowed fame."

Hallowed wreaths suggested inevitably to a Greek the
wreath of wild-olive won at the festival of Zeus in the
Olympic Games. The parents could imagine no prouder
ambition, especially if effort were sweetened by such a
divine assurance of success ; and the youth was promptly
placed in the hands of the trainers. Of course nothing came
of it, except a local victory or two : he was indeed entered
for the Olympic Games, but was disqualified on some tech-
nical grounds by the board of managers at their preliminary
scrutiny. But those two or three years of probation remained
for him no pleasant memory. His experience of the life of
athletes, of their absorption in the body, of their brutality,
empty-headedness, and vanity, filled him with a lasting

xii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

aversion for the class, which breaks out now and again into
scornful expression in his plays.

His father resigned himself to the inevitable,
and for a while the son hovered unsettled be-
tween literature and art. He painted, and would seem to
have painted well, since a picture by him was long exhibited
at Megara.i He attended the ledlures of the philosophers.
Anaxagoras introduced him to physical, and Protagoras to
moral science ; he heard Prodicus discourse on rhetoric ;
and under the guidance of these teachers coUedled a library,
one of the best of his day. So the years passed over the
scholar-poet : spring after spring found him witnessing the
grandeurs of Aeschylus, the splendours of Sophocles, aud
the ephemeral brilliance of those rivals whose dramas,
utterly forgotten now, were sometimes esteemed by judges
and spectators worthy to be preferred to theirs. How
early he tried the wings of his inspiration we cannot tell ;
but we do know that the first play of his that obtained the
honour of being represented in the great theatre at the
spring festival of Dionysus appeared in the year 455 B.C.,
when Euripides was twenty-five years old. It is interesting
to note that Aeschylus and Sophocles commenced their
dramatic career, the former at twenty-six, the latter at
twenty-eight years of age.

It seems advisable at this point to give, for

_ . the information of the general reader, some

Competi- °

tions. explanation of the circumstances attending

the representation of a drama in Athens,

so wholly different as they were from anything in our own

experience.2 There was but one theatre; but it was

1. His plays contain many allusions to painting and sculpture, such
as could come only from one who possessed the taste and technical
knowledge of an artist.

2. The minor performances at the Lensea and Country Dionysia, of
which little is known, are, for the purposes of this description, left cut
of account.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xiii

large enough to contain the whole free population (all of
whom made a point of attending), and a great concourse
of visitors besides. The representations were, primarily, not
a mere public entertainment, but part of a great national
religious fundlion, the worship of Bacchus. Hence they
were confined to the few days of his festival in the month of
March, and were under the control of the state, by which
also their expenses were defrayed. A poet who wished his
plays' to be performed had to submit them to a board pre-
sided over by the Archon^ of the year. Here he found him-
self, at the outset, in competition with rival poets, since only
a limited number of plays could be represented at each
year's festival. To each of the poets whose work was ap-
proved for representation the Archon " assigned a chorus,"
an expression which covered the provision of all requisites for
staging his plays. The chorus was composed of fifteen pro-
fessional singers and dancers. The cost of the instrudlion
of these by skilled teachers, of their salaries and dresses, of
their maintenance during the period of their training and
performance, the expense of the musicians and supernumer-
aries, were defrayed, not diredlly from the state treasury,
but, according to the peculiar system of taxation by which
the Athenians exploited their millionaires, by one of the
wealthy men on whom such burdens devolved in rotation,
and who was called the Choregus. The adtors, who were
not more than three in number, 3 and who therefore had

1. A set of four, three tragedies and one satyric drama (of which
Euripid es' Cyclops is the only extant example) were required of each
competitor.

2. The Archon Eponymus, or chief of the nine.

3. There are two apparent exceptions.the A itdromache,a.nd Sophocles'
Oedipus at Colonus. In the former, the short singing part of Molossus
rnay have been taken by a member of the chorus : in the latter, by a
little management, Ismene may have been represented by a mute
supernumerary during the time she is, without speaking, present on the
stage with those actors who take part in the dialogue.

xiv EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

constantly to double parts, seem to have been paid diredlly

from the treasury, and were, in the rehearsals, " coached " by

the poet himself. The Choregus, thus responsible for the

singing and dancing, and for the general staging of the four

pieces under his charge, was, in his way, in competition

with the choregi of the other poets, just as the poets were

with each other ; and, as it was a question of gaining the

approval and favour of the sovereign people, and as any

shortcomings would be sure to recoil upon himself, he had

every motive for sparing neither expense nor pains. Hence

it must be borne in mind that the literary excellence of a

play, which is all that we can judge it by, constituted but a

small element in its success at the public performance.

The merits of the adtors,^ the favour in which they stood

with the public, the perfecftion of the drill of the chorus, the

excellence of their singing and dancing, the beauty of the

dresses, the equipment of the guards, handmaids, and other

supernumeraries, together with the various stage accessories

demanded by the peculiar features of each play — there were

thousands of the audience with whom these would weigh far

more than artistic development of plot, splendour of poetic

didlion, or depth and beauty of thought.

The judges were chosen by lot from amongst

°^^ ® the audience, and, the chances being thus

prizes were
awarded. enormously against their possessing any special

literary or artistic qualification of their own,

we may safely assume that they were largely guided in

their award by their general impression of the applause,

I. Though nominally the adtors were assigned by lot to the com-
peting poets, the rule was continually being waived in deference to the
predileftions of the great adtors, who preferred to stick to the poets in
whose plays they had made their name, and who, like leading artistes in
all ages, were not to be didtated to. Aeschylus could always command
the services of Kleander and Myniskus, and Sophocles of Tlepolemus
and Kleidemides : the latter poet is said indeed to have written some of
hio plays especially for these eminent adtors.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xv

or by the known sympathies of influential men, or by the
pressure of the cliques, political and social, which swarmed
in Athens. Such as it was, the award of the judges carried
with it ivy wreaths for the vidlorious poet and his per-
formers, and a tripod for the choregus, which he was
expe<5ted to be at the expense of consecrating in a minia-
ture temple or shrine in the Street of the Tripods. In the
popular estimation, indeed, the choregus may sometimes
have bulked as much larger than the author, as the manager
does in our own day.

In the hundred years during which Aeschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides wrote for the stage, we find that these three
carried off between them but thirty-six of the annual first
prizes, the rest falling to authors of whom time has not
deigned to preserve more than the bare names of some half-
dozen, with the titles of a few of their plays. We should,
however, be rash in inferring that these forgotten poets were
as inferior as this oblivion might seem to suggest, and, even
if they were, the patrons of the modern theatre have little
right to cast a stone at those old Athenian audiences.

Into this arena, already crowded with a host of competi-
tors, where Sophocles had first appeared twelve years before,
and whence Aeschylus had just been removed by death,
Euripides stepped down at the age of twenty-five. He was
thirty-nine before a play of his won the first prize, i and the
success was repeated only four times afterwards.^ Since a
poet had to present his dramas in sets of four, this means
that, competing some twenty times in fifty years, he was
adjudged first once out of four times. These official recog-

1. Aeschylus was forty-one before he won the same distindion,
Sophocles twenty-eight.

2. The old Greek MS. " Life" gives the number of his victories as
fifteen ; but other evidence has led scholars to agree in regarding this as
a transcriber's error.

xvi EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

nitions were, however, as we shall see, no measure of his
real popularity.

Successful or not, he wrote on with the tire-
Enemies and jggg^ undaunted energy of genius. It was uphill
detradtors. . ,, .

work, for Euripides was above all things original,

and originality, as the history of letters has often shown
since, makes conquest of the judges of literature last.
All conservatives in dramatic art, all who could think only
in the old grooves, and appreciate the old simple music,
all sticklers for convention, all railers against new ideas,
all who found salvation only in the old religious and social
formulas, all who shuddered to see bubbles pricked —
these, (with probably the whole athletic interest) were,
according to their lights, honestly opposed to him. All
brawling demagogues and their jackals, all who despised
their inferiors in wealth or birth, all friends of selfish, over-
bearing, and faithless Sparta, all who had something to gain
by trading on the credulity and superstition of the populace,
all who envied genius that soared beyond their vision, who
sneered at the earnestness that spoke to the heart, the
human sympathy that had love and admiration for poor
peasants and trampled slaves — these were dishonestly op-
posed to him. The unsophisticated reader of Aristophanes
will find it not easy (even with the assistance of eminent
scholars) to comprehend how, headed by him, the comic
poets could have attacked Euripides out of pure zeal for re-
ligion,^ for old-time simplicity and virtue, and how such as
they could accuse him of " sapping the springs of civic manli-
ness, of patriotism, and even of morality."

I. " We must join with Aristophanes ... in regarding him as a
dramatist who degraded the moral and leligious dignity of his own
sacred profession." (Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, p. if 8.)

Sophocles was, we must conclude, so dull, that, failing to perceive
ihat Athens was well rid of such a man, he set the example of the
national mourning which followed on Euripides' death.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xvii

" What private griefs they had, alas, I know not,
That made them do it," — i
but for twenty years, from 425 b.c. to the year after his
death, Euripides was the objedl of the most persistent and
merciless attacks from the comic stage. In play after play,
from the Acharnians to the Frogs, Aristophanes made him
the butt of the keenest and most telling wit that has ever
stirred men to laughter. His lines were parodied, his
characters were travestied, his plots were burlesqued, his
morality was impugned, his friends were slandered, his
mother was jeered at, he himself was represented on the
stage in disreputable and contemptible situations. And all
this was done with such exquisite fooling, with such irresistible
drollery, that even the friends of the vidtim, we may well
imagine, could not choose but laugh amid their indignation.
Never has any writer endured such a purgatory of ridicule. A
Gibber pilloried in the Dunciad, a Keats scourged by the
Quarterly, may seem sufficiently unenviable ; but no vidtim
of modern satire is exposed to such crucifying publicity, is
so utterly unscreened from the tempest of derision, has the
mocking faces of a nation so thrust against his own, as he
at whom Aristophanes gibed year after year in the great
theatre of Athens. Of what iron endurance must have been
the soul of the man who could uncrushed sit there, and see
the faces of thousands upon thousands agleam with merry

I. Prof. Jebb (Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry, pp.
226 — 230) has found for us an excellent and sufficient reason, which
turns out, on examination, to be identical with that of Demetrius —
" this our craft is in danger to be set at nought." Only the Comedians
were not so frank as the silversmith — nor as their apologist. If, as Prof.
Jebb argues, " Comedy, with sure instincft, saw here a dramatist who
was using the Dionysia against the very faith to which that festival was
devoted," it is odd that Aristophanes, (if he saw this) should have
represented Dionysus as going to Hades on purpose to bring back
Euripides to his stage, when he might, at the cost of sacrificing but two
good jokes on the altar of truth, have more appropriately made him go
thither for Aeschylus.

Vol.. II. b.

xviii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

mockery of him, could behold them rocking to and fro,
" slain with mirth," and hear the laughter surging over tier
on tier of the vast curves like the roaring of a sea ! Of what
steadfast fibre must his purpose have been wrought that he
should hold on unswervmg in the path he had chosen, bating
no jot of heart or hope, but still speaking out the thing that
was in him, still publishing to his countrymen and country-
women the message that was given him for them, through
twenty embittered years ! By what high thoughts was he
sustained, by what loving sympathy comforted, by what
consciousness of right made strong, that he fainted not nor
faltered, who trod that long path of thorns !

He had his reward, not in " first prizes,"
Popularity. , . , , , , •, r ,.

which were so seldom the reward of first

merit, but in an ever increasing hold on the hearts of his
countrymen, and not of these alone, but of all who in-
habited that Greater Greece whose cities gemmed the
shores of the Mediterranean. Not all the twenty years' ridi-
cule of Aristophanes, not all the hostility of conservatives
and aristocrats, availed to thrust back the rising tide of his
popularity. In Aristophanes' own pages we find again and
again an exasperated recognition of Euripides' influence, to
the power of which the comic dramatist bears sufficient, if
grudging, testimony. How wide-spread it was, we may infer
from the story preserved by Plutarch. After describing the
completeness of the disaster that overtook the great
Athenian armament which invaded Sicily 415 — 413 b.c, and
the ruthlessness with which the survivors were exterminated,
he proceeds : —

" Some there were who owed their preservation to Euripides.
Of all the Greeks, his was the muse whom the Sicilians were most
in love with. From every stranger that landed in their island
they gleaned every small specimen or portion of his works, and
communicated it with pleasure to each other. It is said that on

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xix

this occasion a number of Athenians, upon their return home,
went to Euripides, and thanked him in the most respedtful manner
for their obligations to his pen ; some having been enfranchised
for teaching their masters what they remembered of his poems,
and others having got refreshments when they were wandering
about after the battle, for singing a few of his verses. Nor is this
to be wondered at, since they tell us, that when a ship from
Caunus, which happened to be pursued by pirates, was going to
take shelter in one of their ports, the Sicilians at first refused to
admit her ; but upon asking the crew whether they knew any of
the verses of Euripides, and being answered in the afi&rmative,
they received both them and their vessel. "i

{Life of Nicias — Langhorne's trans.)

Such crowns as these no partial judges, no envious detrac-
tors, no maUcious critics could take away ; and it may well
be that the last six years of Euripides' Hfe were his happiest.

Of his home-affairs we know but little. We

are told, in the anonymous " Life " contained amage

relations,
in certain inferior MSS., of his two wives,

Melito and Chcerile, both of whom were in succession
unfaithful to him. There is good reason for doubting the
fa6l of a second marriage,^ and little evidence for his
domestic unhappiness at all. Aristophanes, who would
assuredly have made the most of any such scandal, refers
to one wife only ; and the sole reference which can be con-
strued into an imputation on her chastity is to be found
— not in any play brought out during Euripides' life — but in
the Frogs, which appeared the year after his death. The
passage runs thus : —

Aesch. None knows of any woman whom I drew by passion cursed,
Eurip. Ha ! little part had you in Aphrodite !

1 . This incident forms the basis of Browning's Balaustion's A dventure.

2. See Decharme, Etiripide et VEsprit de son Theatre pp. 12, 13.

XX EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

Aesch. Heaven forbid !

But you and yours had all too much : to you she did her

worst.
Ay, your own self she overthrew.
Bacchus. My word, and so she did !

The things you wrote of others' wives, yourself had suffered
first.

Whatever meaning and weight this imputation may have,

it is significant that it was not made even in the Thesmo-

phoriazusce, brought out five years before, the whole theme of

which is the women's impeachment of Euripides for taxing

them with unchastity. It is too much to suppose that

Aristophanes would have negle(5ted to make the fullest use

of a scandal so apposite to the whole tenor of that play, had

he been in possession of it. It may well be that the story is

of that numerous family of slanders which do not lift their

heads during a man's life.

Aeschylus, at the age of fifty-seven, disgusted,

Depar ure j^. j^ said, with the preference of Sophocles to
from Athens.

himself, forsook Athens for Sicily ; and though

he returned for a time, he again left his country finally ten
years after. Euripides was seventy-two when he accepted
the invitation of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, to repair
to his court, whither other distinguished Greeks, — painters,
poets, and musicians, — friends of Euripides, had preceded
him, and where men of letters were not only honoured
guests, but (as happened, it is said, to Euripides himself)
were sometimes placed in positions of ofiicial dignity.
He visited Magnesia on the way, and was there feted
and loaded with every honour. The court of Macedonia
may well have seemed a haven of rest to him, after the
ceaseless vexations, the political unrest, and the now immi-
nent perils of Athens. Amidst the magnificent scenery of
that northern land, its forest-clad mountains, its lovely

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxi

glens, its noble rivers, his muse was kindled with new
inspiration ; and he wrote with a freedom, a rapidity, a
depth and fervour of thought, and a splendour of dicStion,
which even he had scarcely attained before. The Iphigeneia
at A ulis and the Bacchanals remain to us out of the four plays
which were the fruits of his unharassed leisure.
Felix opportunitate mortis, he was spared the
knowledge of the shameful sequel of Arginusse,
the miserable disaster of Aegospotami, the last lingering
agony of famished Athens, and her humiliation in the dust
before her foes. He died 406 B.C. at the age of seventy-
five, more than a year before these calamities befell. For
the wild legend of his having been torn by dogs, and for
the still wilder story of his death at the hands of furious
women, there is no contemporary authority — as there cer-
tainly would have been, had any such particulars reached
Athens along with the news of his death. When the tidings
arrived, a play of Sophocles was on the eve of representation.
The old poet put on mourning for his dead rival, and made
his aftors and chorus appear without their crowns, and the
great concourse in the theatre wept aloud. The people sent
an embassy entreating that his body might be given to them,
but in vain. He was magnificently buried near Arethusa in
Macedon, and his tomb was said to have been struck by
lightning from Zeus, an honour vouchsafed to none other of
men save the ancient lawgiver Lycurgus. His countrymen
built a cenotaph to his memory, and graved thereon this : —

"The shrine of Euripides dead is the heart of all Hellas, though
lying
In Macedon rest his bones, for that there did he end his days.
His birth-land was Athens, the Hellas of Hellas : his strains un-
dying
Gladdened the Queens of Song : the nations acclaim him with
praise."

xxii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

In the year after his death, the Iphigeneia at

Posthumous ^^j-^^ ^^g Bacchanals, and the Alkmeon (a lost
fame.

play) were brought out, and gamed the first prize.

Three months before, ^ Aristophanes had made a last futile
attempt to discredit him, in his comedy of the Frogs. Here he
makes Aeschylus say, " My poetry has not died with me, but
this man's has died with him." Never was literary judgment
more shortsighted. Whatever popularity Euripides had en-
joyed in life, it was as nothing to that which followed on his
death. Athenians soon had cause to look upon him as the
guardian-genius of his country. In the very next year, when
Athens was taken, and the generals of the allies were con-
sidering the Thebans' proposal to destroy her, they were,
Plutarch tells us, diverted from their purpose by listening
to the declamation, " by a man of Phocis," of that choral
passage in the Electra, beginning 1. 167. Their quick per-
ceptions were struck with the parallel between the forlorn
state of the royal house and of the royal city.

As the years passed on, Euripides' hold upon heart and
intelledl became only the more assured. To quote the words
of a great French critic 2; — " If Aeschylus had risen from
Hades a hundred years after the representation of the Frogs,
he would have found that his own poetry was, indeed, not for-
gotten on earth, but that it was eclipsed by that of Euripides.
Sophocles himself, had he returned, would have had great
reason to be astonished. It was no longer his tragedies,
however perfedl they were, which were oftenest played, and
with most success ; it was not he who was most read, most
quoted, most admired of the tragic poets ; it was Euripides.3
This poet who, in his lifetime, found such difficulty in

1. At the Lenaea, in Jan., 405 B.C.

2. Decharme, Euripide et V Esprit de son Theatre, p. 20.

3. There are more quotations by ancient writers from his single play
of Orestes than from all the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles put to-
gether. (Paley.)

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxiii

pleasing the judges of the dramatic festivals, passes, im-
mediately after his death, to the undisputed position of
founder of a new school in literature." Dramatic authors
of succeeding generations all formed their style on that of
Euripides ;! artists turned from Homer and the cyclic poets,
and came to Euripides for subjedts. The vase-paintings to
this day attest his influence on art. Philosophers quarried
in him for dodtrine and maxim, orators kindled their hearers
to higher patriotism and nobler self-sacrifice by quotations
from his pages. One of the longest fragments preserved
from any of his lost plays is from the Erechtheus : it has come
down to us in a speech (of date 330 b.c.) of the orator Ly-
curgus, who prefaces his quotation of it with the remark,
" You will observe in these lines a heroism and nobleness
worthy of our city," The dramatist Philemon wrote :

" Could I be sure, friends, that men after death
Retain their consciousness, as some aver,
I'd hang myself to see Euripides."

But no more striking instance of the power of a poet to play
upon men as upon a musical instrument has ever been given
than that which we find recorded by Lucian. He tells that,
about a hundred years after Euripides' death, a travelling
theatrical troupe represented one summer at Abdera his
Andromeda.^ So thrilled by the art of the adtor, so intoxi-
cated by the charm of the poetry, were the audience (which,
in a Greek city, implied the whole population), that they left
the theatre in a state of impassioned exaltation, in a tragic
frenzy. With pale cheeks and shining eyes they paced to
and fro in street and square, declaiming and chanting " at

1. As we do not possess a single work of any of these, it does seem a
little arbitrary to account for their preference of him by alleging the deca-
dence of Greek dramatic literature in their hands. If they were dwarfs,
they stood upon giants' shoulders, and may not have been tasteless fools.

2. This is the play, a perusal of which on a voyage stirred Bacchus
(Aristophanes, Frogs, 11. 52-70) to start for Hades to bring back
Euripides to his theatre.

xxiv EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

the top of their voices " the speeches, monodies, and choruses,
especially that beginning, " O Love, thou despot over Gods
and men ! " It was not a transient excitement : it lasted for
months, until, in fadt, the winter came, and a keen frost
cooled their fevered blood.

When " Greece led her conqueror captive," it was Euri-
pides whom Roman poets, orators, and philosophers delighted
to honour, Ennius, Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, are but the greatest
among a host of his admirers. As Verrall puts it, — " The most
cultivated men of the ancient world speak of Euripides regu-
larly and habitually as modest men would now speak of
Shakspeare or Goethe, and sometimes as reverent men would
now speak of Dante or St. Paul." The early Christian Fathers
quoted him with approval. He was for them the chief wit-
ness for righteousness, the purest teacher of morality, amongst
the ancients; in some sort, a forerunner of Christianity. '^ A
sacred drama, " Christ's Passion," was composed by some
early Father, of passages taken from various plays of
Euripides. In the Middle Ages, Dante knew, or cared to
recognize, Euripides alone of the three. To Milton's love
and minute critical study of him we owe the Comus and the
Samson Agonistes. It is only since the beginning of the
present century that a new school of criticism, of German
origin, has arisen, which, not content with exalting Aeschylus
and Sophocles far above him, has spared no pains to depre-
ciate Euripides. It can hardly be said that the detradtors
have carried the poets with them. Goethe indignantly cried :
" If a modern like Schlegel must pick out faults in so great
an ancient, he ought only to do it upon his knees." Coleridge
said, " Certainly Euripides was a greater poet in the abstract
than Sophocles." Macaulay, who in his salad days carped
at him, in his maturity wrote : " I can hardly account for
the contempt which, at school and college, I felt for

1. Decharme, Euripide, p. 23.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxv

Euripides. I own that I now like him better than Sopho-
cles."^ Browning, in Balaustion's Adventure and Aristophanes'
Apology, has done a great poet's utmost to commend him to
our reverent study. " It is ill," says Joubert, " to differ from
the poets in poetry, and from the saints in religion."

The world of scholars is, perhaps, still divi-
ded into two camps on the question of his Modern
true position ; but the voice of dispraise is not "^''^^^'^ ".
as of old. It is tempered by much discrimin-
ation, and somewhat faint with diffidence. It may be
doubted whether critics who brush aside the judgment of
antiquity with a few supercilious observations on " de-
graded taste" and "decadence of literature," have given
full weight to an important consideration, viz., that the
ancients, whose verdidt, early pronounced and adhered to
with increasing emphasis through hundreds of years, they
have called in question, were, in many respedts, in a far
better position to judge than we moderns can be. Whereas
we possess but seven plays of Aeschylus, seven of Sophocles,
and nineteen of Euripides, they possessed all, or nearly all,
that these three had written,2 as well as a vast number of
the works of the contemporary and later dramatists. Hence
a full comparative study was possible to them. Again, to
these old-time students the great dramatists spoke in their
mother-tongue ; aud, however ripe may be the scholarship,
and however " thrice-repured " the taste of a modern critic,
there are inevitable limitations to his judgment of an ancient,
which none will recognise more promptly and appreciate
more fully than himself. The nuances of signification, the
connotation of words which usage creates, and which no
lexicon can preserve, no comparative study of authors re-

1. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay, vol. i, appendix.

2. Perhaps about seventy by Aeschylus, the same number by
Sophocles, and seventy-five by Euripides.

xxvi EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

cover for us ; the verse-music of which only the ear could be
cognisant, and which must be lost to men who now cannot
even agree on such elementary requisites for its appreciation
as the pronunciation of the Greek alphabet and the effedt of
accentuation— all these entered into the old readers' and
hearers' estimate, and weighed with an absolute sureness
where we must needs depend on guesswork. Scholars are of
course fully alive to all this ; and so, in their appraisement
of the Greek dramatists, limit their consideration mainly to
features which the baldest prose translation displays as well
as the original text. Such are, the poet's adherence to or
departure from a certain standard of the ideal, his philosophy
of life, his attitude to religion, his social and political views,
the artistic perfedtion of his plots, his management of dia-
logue, the subjedl-matter of his choruses, his presentment of
character, and so forth. Yet here too we have to guard
against judging the thought, the art, the feeling, the ethics
of a far-off age and alien race by canons which have been in
part modified by influences that have had birth in far later
times and under very different conditions. ^ In some respe(fts
the Greeks regarded their drama and its teachings from a
point of view now lost. Some critics, while recognising this,
yet assume that they can set themselves right by taking
Aristophanes as their guide. Here, however, they need to
exercise as much caution as we ourselves should recommend
to critics of some future age who should assume that they
could recover the lost literary standpoint of our nineteenth
century by taking Byron to adjust their estimate of Words-
worth, and certain issues of Blackwood and the Quarterly to
assist them in finding the true place of Keats. Once more,

I. "No modern can stricflly confine his thoughts within the mental
boundaries of ancient Greece ; despite all his efforts, disturbing cross-
hghts from later ages will steal in, and colour or obscure his vision of
that far-off world." (Prof. Jebb, Growth and Influence of Classical Greek
Poetry, p. 250.)

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxvii

while the special kind of artistic excellence in which we are
told that Sophocles alone attained consummate perfedtion
was not pursued, was not essayed, after his day, but
became like some lost art, for the productions of which
changed conditions of society have destroyed all demand,
the peculiar feature of Euripides' genius which appealed to
the ancient world, which came to them like a revelation,
has been developed continuously through later times, and
more especially since the dawn of Christianity. The sym-
pathies that had not been voiced till Euripides gave them
utterance, the chords in our nature on which no hand had
fallen before his, have since his time touched men and
thrilled men through many generations. Some of us maj' be
inclined to undervalue early examples of a type of literary
excellence which the world has since cultivated assiduously
through many centuries, and to overvalue a type of artistic
excellence which is so absolutely a thing of the past that we
cannot even recover with certainty the standpoint from
which its results were viewed by those to whom the Athenian
drama was part of the ordinary experience of their lives.

In estimating the literary standing of Euripides with his
contemporaries, and his artistic and ethical influence, it
would be well to bear in mind that his salient characteristic
was originality — the originality of a workman who, rigidly
coniined to certain prescribed materials, tools, patterns, and
general style of treatment, yet, by sheer force of genius, sets
the stamp of his own individuality on every piece of work he
touches.

The class of characters to be represented

® ^^ on the stage was already fixed by tradition.

Treatment." ^ j j j

when Euripides appeared. ^ The Gods and

Heroes of myth and legend must be the leading person-

I. No precedent had been established by the only two known excep-
tions, Phrynicus' Capture of Miletus, and Aeschylus' Persians.

xxviii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

ages in ever}' play. As the dress in which they appeared
was magnificent, with no attempt at historical correctness
or scenic illusion, and as their attitudes and groupings
were rather statuesque than histrionic, so it had come to
be the custom to maintain a certain " grand style" in their
di(5tion. Their humanity must be of the heroic type ; by
" calm sorrows and majestic pains " they must stir pity and
awe, and whatever lesson or warning the spedtator drew
from their triumph or their defeat, its application to himself
was not based on the refledtion, "These are of like passions
with me : out of even such weakness as mine they are made
strong." Tliey were beings of a far-off world, superhuman
in fortitude, Titanic in crime, magnificent in overthrow.
They were compassed with nets of Fate and Necessity :
their steps were dogged by Nemesis, and Divine Retribution
was ever at the door. It was for them to show how sublime
a thing it is to suffer and be strong, with what grace and
majesty a Laocoon can agonize in toils of despair. This is
what is implied by what scholars call the ideal as distin-
guished from the realistic treatment ; and, though Sophocles
has certain notable lapses from it,' on the whole he and
Aeschylus adhered to it. An excellent type it is, so long as
it is considered sufficient that a Tragedy shall be a fragment
of an epic poem dramatized.^ But when some five or six

1. " The Atreidae (in the Ajax) are drawn as vulgar tyrants, and with-
out a single redeeming feature." (Mahaffy — History of Greek Classical
Literature, p. 84.)

" Agamemnon, arguing like an astute lawyer or an ingenious dema-
gogue, may be a more familiar type of person, but the illusion that
we are listening to the king of Mycenae is ruined." (Prof. Jebb,
Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry, p. 221.)

It is, we must suppose, to the Ajax that the foregoing remark refers,
since it is applicable to no scene in any other extant Greek play.

" In none of his plays has Euripides depi(5ted such a thorough-going
scoundrel as the Sophoclean Odysseus in the Philoctetes." (Donne —
Ancient Classics for English Readers, p. 68.)

2. Aeschylus described his own plays as " mere fragments from the
banquet of Homer."

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxix

hundred plays constructed on these lines had been produced
by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the lesser stars, and the public
and the judges had, after their wont, settled down into the
convidlion that perfecftion was stereotyped, a third great
genius arose, and had the audacity to reconsider the whole
question. And he seems to have begun by going to the root
of the matter, and asking, " What is the truest, highest, and
most pradlical fundtion of the drama ? Has it no possibili-
ties yet unrealized, no message to the hearts and consciences
of these men and women of a new day ? " It was indeed a
new day : men had lived fast since Athens had entered upon
her career of heroism and power. Their thoughts had
widened with their knowledge of other peoples : they knew
the world was not as the poets of the past had imagined it ;
and the old-time fables of the Gods, of their amours, their
quarrels, their disguises in human form, might still hold a
place in the conventions of religion, but had no part in
living faith. The spirit of the new scepticism had appeared
in Herodotus and Aeschylus : Pindar refused to credit base-
ness, injustice, and impurity of the Deity. The unreality of
the old conceptions of Gods and heroes had forced itself on
men's minds ; and the Athenians were least of all likely to
sacrifice truth, or honest doubt, and free inquiry, to a
supposed artistic ideal, or to go on putting new wine into old
bottles, to save themselves from " decadence." There is,
even in poetry and art, something higher than the worship
of the fetish of the ideal. It must be remembered, too, that
to suffer the stage to be permanently monopolized by crea-
tions raised above the sympathies and needs of common life
was to sacrifice far more than would be involved in such a
procedure now. The drama, and more especially Tragedy,
was the pulpit and the press of the time, the one means of
diredtly influencing popular thought, as the Pnyx was of
influencing national adtion. And such an influence was

XXX EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

sorely needed. Men had wider opportunities, larger know-
ledge, were confronted with deeper and more complicated
problems : old chains were straining and snapping. Were
they to be henceforth wholly unfettered ? Were there no
eternal principles whose obligations would survive outworn
prescription and decaying faith ? If the Gods were not as
myth and poet represented them, were there no Gods ?
Humanity's great inarticulate challenge had been flung down
before priest, philosopher, and poet. The temple-doors
closed against it with sullen clang : the philosopher plucked
aside his robes and withdrew into his cultured coteries, his
exclusive lecture-halls : the singers murmured, " We know
our mission, and we have learnt our tune." So it was left
to this one poet to take it up — alone. But his freedom of
choice was stridlly limited. The one channel of publication
open to a dramatist was through the theatre, and hence an
author could only hope to reach the public by conforming to
conventional requirements, however these might trammel
him. He must of necessity utter the new message through
the old media : he must out of the experiences of the heroes
and heroines of legend find an answer to the questions which
perplexed common men, find help and guidance for very
human weakness and bewilderment. If the old legends
were of any ethical value for his day, it was because those
represented in them were real, not ideal beings, hence of
like passions with us, swayed by the same motives, sinning
from the same temptations, excusing their errors by the
same pleas, and, when they dared to face the unseen, dis-
quieted by the same doubts. Looking deeper than the sur-
face, moreover, he saw that there is nothing necessarily
ideal in high descent or royal station, still less in the stately
accessories of costume and environment associated with
these. In peasant and bondman he found types of noble
humanity, of selfless honour, of loyal faith. He showed that

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxxi

poverty did not starve out true manhood, nor rags degrade

it. He would not be contented with the conventional ex-

clusiveness of a vocabulary which bade fair to become too

narrow for the thoughts which were demanding expression ;

but his enrichments no more made it " more commonplace "

than Shakspeare made English poetry more commonplace

by his use of law-terms, or Tennyson by the touches he drew

from science, or by the words he rescued from half-oblivion

on rustic lips.

He laid bare the human heart not only in the

ecstasies and agonies of its love, in the shudder- "^^^ " ^°^^""

sic Dcb&tGs "
ings of its haunting fears, in the sacredness of

its grief, in the exaltation of high resolve, but also in those
darker processes of the mind wherein the sinner wrestles with
his own conscience, and would fain justify his transgression
before God and man. With a subtle instinct he perceived
how prone the evil-doer is to evade the broad issues of right
and wrong, and to seek refuge in a multitude of separately
casuistic or irrelevant pleas, to essay to make a strong chain
out of many defedtive links, as though an untenable position
could, by occupying all available outposts, be made to seem
unassailable.! So a Helen shifts from plea to plea to excuse
her faithlessness : a Jason marshals all the audacious
sophisms of egotism : a Klytemnestra demands new canons
of right and wrong to suit her special case : or an Eteocles
desperately claims that justice shall give way when injustice
proffers the whole world as a bribe. The smiling hypocrisy,
the plausible evasion, the naked cynicism, the angry obsti-
nacy of those whom the strong delusion of selfishness con-
strains to believe a lie — Euripides unveils them all ; but it

" Justice needs no subtle sophistries :
Itself hath fitness ; but the unrighteous plea,
Having no soundness, needeth cunning salves."

[Phcenician Maidens, 470 — 472.)

xxxii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

is surely a little superficial to charafterize this feature of
his genius as " a fondness for sophistical reasoning," or to
claim that noble didlion is sacrificed and the ideal " large
utterance " marred, because the war between right and
wrong is fought out with disciplined forces. Sophocles was
hardly of one mind with the latter-day critics who carp at
this pracftice of Euripides. In four out of his seven plays
he has what would be called "forensic debates," were they
found in Euripides ;i and in five he has the same kind of
" wrangling dialogues " of which we have heard so much
from the detradlors of the younger poet. 2

In the mythological representations of the
Attitude to ^^^^ ^g ^^^ ^^^ 2j^^^jg iujee^j ^hat is essentially
Religion.

ideal. Had the epic poets not thrown around

that Pantheon of lust, of mutual jealousy and contention,
the glamour of stately verse, these forms which gleamed
luridly against the heavy clouds of superstition and nature-
worship might have faded like evil dreams with the first
dawn of the intelledlual day of Greece. But the poets
imparted to men's conceptions of the Gods a precision and
harmony, an aesthetic beauty and verisimilitude, which
gave them a new, an almost indefinite lease of life, so that
even we moderns find it easier to imagine the adlual being
of Apollo and Aphrodite than of the Gods of our fathers,
Odin and Freya. As subjedls for poetry and art they be-
came wholly satisfying; for purposes of ritual and public
worship they were conventionally adequate. The difficulty
was felt when men asked, " What are the eternal powers
that make for righteousness ? — who are the sleepless provi-

1. In Oedipus Colo7ieus, g29 — 1013 I Antigone, S^g — 725; AJax, 1226 —
1315 ; Electra, 516 — 609.

2. In Oedipus Rex, 334 — 446, 532 — 630 ; Oedipus Coloneus, 800 — 810 ;
Antigone, 80 — 99, 542 — 560, 726 — 765; Ajax, 1120 — 1162; Electra,
340—375. 1017— 1057.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxxiii

deuces of our world of hopes and fears ?— in whom shall we
put our trust, and to whom pray ? — who are the unswerving
vindicators of purity, of truth, of lionesty ? Are these Gods
of the temples and the poets the all-pervading, the all-wise,
the confidence of the ends of the earth, and of them that are
afar off upon the sea ? " Sophocles passed by on the other
side, left the question untouched, as a thing not affedting the
laws of conscience and the claims of duty, and testified that
enough of the beautiful and the hopeful remained for him,
enough of strength and encouragement in the assurance that
all things still are working together for good. Only twice
does a discordant note sound in his pages, when Hyllus
appeals to men " not to forgive the Gods, seeing the mischief
they do," and Philodtetes cries that " honouring the Gods,
he finds the Gods base.''^ Aeschylus proclaimed a Power
that manifested itself in retribution, a God to whom ven-
geance belongeth : if, as in the Prometheus, he was confronted
with an evil legend of the old Pantheon, he dashed himself
against it in sullen indignation, pointing, as in scornful
silence, to Zeus the usurper, the tyrant, the evil genius of
humanity, the Doomed One.

While Sophocles believed and trusted, and Aeschylus
believed and trembled, Euripides gazed steadily and fear-
lessly on the great veil hiding the unknown. " He fought
his doubts and gathered strength ; he would not make his
judgment blind." Because the Gods of fable and poetry
were impossible, he did not therefore deny the existence of
Gods. To the scientific sceptic of his day he referred as one

" Who scans this universe, and finds no God,
But babbles those star-gazers' aimless lies,

I. TrachinecB, 1267, and Philoctetes, 446 — 452 (Plumptre's rendering).
The more generally adopted interpretation removes the defiant im-
piety from the first passage, but preserves the note of condemnation.

Vol.. II. c.

xxxiv EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

Whose pestilent tongue flings random dreams abroad
Of the Unseen, whom wisdom makes not wise."i

(Fragment 905.)

He took the legendary stories of amorous or revengeful
deities and used them as artistic material, accepting, for
artistic purposes, the popular view of them as irresponsible
powers, not subjecft to earthly laws of justice and right,
who made human beings their playthings and their viaims.
But ever and anon flashes through the romance the passionate
cry of a Kreusa's outraged heart, the stern reprobation of
one who tells of Apollo's revenge upon a hero's son, a
Herakles' indignant rejeftion of the dodtrine of Gods at
feud with Gods. A chorus wails that faith is without know-
ledge : a votary bids his God in might remember righteous-
ness: a God charges his fellow-god with folly. It behoves
us, indeed, to exercise extreme caution in assuming that in
the expression of this or that opinion by one of his charadlers
we find a self-revelation of the poet : it is a principle of inter-
pretation the adoption of which will in the great majority of
cases mislead us, and involve us in contradicftory conclusions.
We might more safely lay it down as a rule, that, wherever
there is manifest dramatic propriety in the sentiment put
into the mouth of a particular charadler, there the poet was
not making that person the mouthpiece of his own views :^
the sentiment may indeed in certain cases coincide with his
own ; but, in a wide range of character and incident, that
was inevitable. But to many of these references to mythical

1. Of the illustrative extradts which follow, I have purposely taken
none from any of the twelve plays which my readers may now consult
for themselves ; and have also thought it unnecessary to give more than
a very few references to passages in them. The numerical references
to fragments are to Nauck's edition of 1885.

2. Typical examples are Hippolytus' tirade against women {Hipp.
616 — 668) ; the Theban herald's recommendation of peace — an in-
glorious peace in this case— (Suppl. 479—493) ; Kassandra's sneer at
heralds {Daughters of Troy, 424 — 426).

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxxv

religion this rule does not apply. They are often of the
nature of passing comment, or obiter dicta. Had Euripides
found no difficulty in popular theology, he might, without
sacrifice of dramatic fitness, have omitted them without
changing the general drift of the speeches in which they
occur. The conclusion forces itself on the reader that
Euripides not only saw clearly the inconsistency of ascribing
the baser human vices to those supreme beings who demand
righteousness in their creatures ; but, while he did not aim at
flouting the simple popular faith, he at all events sought to
lead his audiences to think seriously, to question their own
consciences, and to strive to dissociate fable from faith. To
say that " his stories assume that the Gods do not exist,"i is
surely to take for granted that, by representing the popular
divinities in the naked deformity of their lust, their cruelty,
their jealousy, a poet would expedl to drive his audience to
the inevitable conclusion that these Gods were non-existent.
The experience of all ages and all nations disproves the
theory. Men have always worshipped their Gods, not for
their goodness, but for their power ; and the more realistic
such stories were, the more they brought home to believers
the nearness, the formidable irresponsibility, the readiness
to harm if offended, to help if propitiated, of these beings.
It does not appear that the faith of Sophocles, much less
that of his audience, staggered at the ruthless vindiftiveness
and partiality of Athena, in his Ajax.

But Euripides differed from his countrymen in that he
refused to see in the constitution and moral government of
the world any reason for accepting fables about its supreme
rulers for which he felt the only ultimate authority was
the imagination of men. The existence of Zeus, Apollo,

I. Verrall, Euripides the Rationalist, p. 260.

xxxvi EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

Aphrodite, I he did not call in question ; but he more than
hinted that our conceptions of them must not be degrading.
He was very far from being either atheist or sceptic, as some
have hastily called him. He believed earnestly, passionately,
in a Divinity, in a watching Providence, in the revelation of
his will by oracles, 2 in his vindication of the right, in his
regard for human suffering : —

" There is, howe'er ye gibe thereat,
A Zeus, and Gods who look on woes of men."

(Fragment 981).

"I, whensoe'er I see the wicked man
Cast down, aver that there are Gods indeed."

(Frag. Oenomaus).

With the fashionable scepticism of the sophists and philo-
sophers, reckless as it was in speculation, audacious in
negation, he had no sympathy. It was one thing to say that
our conception of the Gods must be cleansed of what, if we
be right-minded, we must recognise as impiety, nay, blas-
phemy ; another to deny the being of Gods, to dogmatize on
the unseen. Thus he says : —

" Slowly on-sweepeth, but unerringly,

The might of Heaven, with sternest lessoning
For men who in their own mad fantasy
Exalt their unbelief, and crown it king —

Mortals who dare belittle things divine !

Ah, but the Gods in subtle ambush wait :
On treads the foot of time ; but their design

Is unrelinquished, and the ruthless fate

1. His saying (Daughters of Troy, 989) " Thine heart became thy
Kypris. All folly is for men their Aphrodite," no more expresses a
disbelief in Aphrodite than St. James's "Whose god is their belly"
expresses a disbelief in God.

2. We must distinguish his unshaken faith in the oracles (see Helen,
1. 1150) from his contempt for the soothsayers, prophets, diviners, and
all the tribe whose lies misled the Athenians to their ruin.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxxvii

Quests as a sleuth-hound till it shall have tracked
The godless down in that relentless hunt.

We may not, in the heart's thought or the act,
Set us above the law of use and wont."

{Bacchanals, 882 — 893).

So, as he stretched lame hands of faith to "the all-beholding,
unbeheld Himself,''^ if haply he might feel after him and find
him, it seemed to him at times that he gained a far-off vision
of the truth, that he was touched by the skirts of the glory
passing by, and knew that this was no presence that could
be shapen in marble or in ivory and gold, nor could be con-
tained in any temple made with hands : —

" What manner of house by hands of craftsmen framed
May compass with its walls the form divine ? "

{Fragment 968).

As Wordsvi'orth felt the immanence of that great Soul in
nature which filleth heaven and earth,

" Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air.
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things,"

so Euripides felf that only the all-enfolding could be co-
extensive with the all-upholding : —

" Seest thou the boundless ether there on high
That folds the earth around with dewy arms ?
This deem thou Zeus, this reckon one with God ; "2

{Fragment 935).

I. Fragment, 1115 ; and cf. Daughters of Troy, 884 — 888.

2. Aeschylus, in a rare outburst of speculative daring, had already said,
" Zeus is the ether, Zeus the earth, Zeus heaven ;
Yea, Zeus is all, and what is above all."

{Fragment 379).

xxxviii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

and, rapt in adoration, beheld a vision sublime as that of
Hebrew psalmist —

" Thee, self-begotten, who, in ether rolled

Ceaselessly round, by mystic links dost blend
The nature of all things, whom veils enfold
Of light, of dark night flecked with gleams of gold,
Of star-hosts dancing round thee without end."

(Frag. Peirithous).

No marvel that men said afterwards that Zeus had shown

especial honour to the tomb of him who had ascribed

exceeding majesty to him, who had lifted men's thoughts far

above the grovelling conceptions of the priests, far beyond

the fairyland of the poets.

He who believed in a higher type of divinity

' ^^ ® ° believed also in a higher type of humanity,
morality and
religion Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things

are lovely, whatsoever things are of good

report — these he commended to his countrymen. In the

noble rheses so frequent in his plays, in chorus-chants that

throb with patriotism, that thrill with human sympathy,

that breathe solemn reverence for saniftities, he raised men

into an atmosphere high above the sordid round of daily

life. In golden aphorisms — the " arrows of the soul " which

strike into men's hearts and there remain to sting them on

to nobler aims — he spoke of virtue —

" Three virtues are there ; pradlise these, my son —
Honour the Gods, the parents that reared thee,
The common laws of Hellas. This do thou,
And aye a crown of glory shalt thou win : " —

(Frag. Antiope.)
of the solid permanence of chara<51:er —

" Safer than law is upright character —
For this can none by crafty words pervert.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xxxix

But that the pleader oft turmoiling turns

This way and that, and staineth it with wrong : " —

(Frag. Peliades.)

of wealth gotten by vanity —

" Snatch honours by the strong hand, wicked men;
Get wealth, yea, hunt the prey from every side,
Unrighteous gain and righteous undistinguished —
Then the grim harvest reap of all these things : " —

(Frag. I no.)
of our accountability —

" Mortals hold their possessions not in fee ;
We are but stewards of the gifts of God :
Whene'er he will, he claims his own again."

[Phoenician Maidens, 555 — 557.)

of the wisdom of resignation —

" Never was man born but to toil and pain.
He burieth children, getteth him new babes,
And dies himself. Yet men are grieved hereat
When dust to dust they bear ; needs must it be
That death like corn-shocks garner lives of men ,
That this man be, that be no more. Now why
Mourn what all must by nature's law pass through ?
There is no horror in the inevitable : " —

(Frag. Hypsipyle.)

and of the grandeur of noble, though unsuccessful, en-
deavour—

'■ Though one fail, greatly failing, he
By death wins immortality."

(Frag. Aigcjis.)

It is not, however, by exhortation that one moves his
fellows most deeply and permanently, but by setting before
them inspiring examples, by creating great ideals.

One of the foremost of English scholars and critics,
arguing that Aristophanes is, in his indicJtment of Euripides,
substantially right from the Athenian point of view, says :

xl EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

" His Aeschylus (in the Frogs) complains that Euripides
had sapped the springs of civic manliness, of patriotism, and
even of morality. It is true that Euripides, as a dramatic
poet, had contributed to tendencies setting in that diredtion.
Homer had been regarded by the Greeks as their greatest
teacher, because the heroes were the noblest ideals of
human life which they possessed. Aeschylus and Sophocles,
in their different ways, had preserved the Homeric spirit.
If the heroes once ceased to be ideals of human life, the
ordinary Greek of the fifth century had no others."'

It does not seem incontestably obvious that heroes elevated
above commonplace humanity do furnish the best conceivable
ideals for common men. But, assuming this to be so, what
traits of charadler in these heroes would the Greek wisely
take for imitation ? Their splendid physical and mental
endowments ? — these were, by hypothesis, unattainable.
Their bravery ? — certainly the bravery of the Homeric
heroes may be said to represent fairly the average of Hellenic
courage. There was none of them whose heart did not fail
in the face of overwhelming odds, — save Diomedes, whom
Nestor censures^ for this very trait, the Berserk element in
his charadter, and Achilles, who was so divinely endowed
and assisted that for him no odds could be overwhelming, —
none of them who ever stood as the Spartans stood at Ther-
mopylae, or the Athenians at Marathon. A painful, not a
disabling wound would send any one of them from the
battle-field. 3 The grasping greed and tyrannous insolence
of Agamemnon, the sublime selfishness of Achilles in leaving
thousands of Greeks to perish, the unfailing mendacity of
Odysseus, will hardly be upheld as ideal qualities. If, how-

1. Prof. Jebb, Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry, p. 232.

2. Iliad, ix, 63, 64.

3. For a full discussion of the charadter of Homer's heroes the
reader is referred to Mahaffy's Social Life in Greece, ch. ii.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK, xli

ever, the Greeks who saw the rise of the drama really had
no other ideals, was it possible for genius to create no others
— none which might hold up purity, stainless honour, un-
flinching patriotism, self-sacrifice, for men's worship and
emulation ? This, it seems to me, was what Euripides set
himself to do ; and this he succeeded in doing to a degree
unparalleled in the extant dramas of either of his great
rivals.

Alcestis, the ideal of a devoted wife and mother ; Polyxena,
of a brave martyr-maiden ; Aithra, of an intercessor for the
oppressed ; Theseus, of a patriot statesman ; Andromache,
of queenly courage and love stronger than death ; Makaria
and Iphigeneia, of heroic self-sacrifice; Helen (in the play
of that name), of wifely constancy ; Hippolytus, of youthful
purity ; Ion, of youthful piety ; Peleus, of chivalrous old
age ; Achilles, of chivalrous youth ; the Peasant (in Electro),
of chivalry in humble life ; Pylades (in Orestes and Iph. in
Taicr.), of self-forgetting friendship ; Ele(5tra (in Orestes) of
sisterly devotion ; Menoikeus, of sublime patriotism; Theonoe,
of reverence for right overriding claims of kinship and per-
sonal safety ; — can as many, can half as many such inspiring
ideals as these be coUedted from all the plays of Aeschylus
and Sophocles — charadters which, like these, could strengthen
the weak, could confirm the wavering, could kindle self-de-
votion, could impress upon the hearers that none of them
lived unto himself, that they owed their help, their love, their
life, to friends and country — that not steadfast endurance, not
the unconquerable will, not jealous self-respe(5t, is noblest in
a man, but the recognition of Duty as paramount ? It has
been truly said that heroism (evij/vxio) is with him the supreme
virtue ; but it must be added that it is the consecrated heroism
out of which self is utterly cast, which faces pain and death
in the spirit, not of the warrior, but of the martyr, which lives,
not in the fierce energy of abounding vitality, nor in the grim

xlii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

exultation of him whose red sword testifies that he falls not
unavenged, nor in the defiance which desperately braves a
tyrant, but in that triumph of the soul over the weakness of
the flesh, which is not kindled by excitement, nor sustained
by sympathy, but abides calm and steadfast where an
Achilles wails to Gods that seem to abandon him,i where a
HecStor is broken down into suppliance to his conqueror,
where an Antigone laments that she must die so young, with
life's promise unfulfilled. What Athenian would not be uplifted
in spirit, and made capable of giving up his all for Athens, by
the noble example of frail girls like Makaria and Iphigeneia ?
Whose pulses would not leap in response to those last words
of Menoikeus in which he announces his purpose of fulfilling
the oracle's requirement by self-immolation for the salvation
of his country ? —

" No forgiveness should be mine
If I betray the city of my birth.
Doubt not but I will go and save the town,
And give my soul to death for this land's sake.
'Twere shame that men no oracles constrain,
Who have not fallen into the net of fate,
Shoulder to shoulder stand, blench not from death,
Fighting before the towers for fatherland.
And I, betraying father, brother, yea,
My city, craven-like flee forth the land —
A dastard manifest, where'er I dwell !

I go, to give my country no mean gift.

My life, from ruin so to save the land :

For, if each man would take his all of good.

Lavish it, lay it at his country's feet.

Then fewer evils should the nations prove.

And should through days to come be prosperous."

[Phcenician Maidens, 995 — 1018).

There is in all Greek literature no finer defence of the
I. Iliad, xxi, 273 — 283.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xliii

energetic policy of Athens, of her readiness to champion the

cause of the weak, than that uttered in the appeal of Aithra

in the Suppliants, and in the speeches and chorus-chants in

the Children of Herakles. He consistently denounced the

pracftices of the demagogues who would mislead her, he

pointed to the sources of her truest strength, he vindicated

her free institutions, he recalled her heroic past. It was

fitting that to him who in life so passionately loved Athens,

who sang his soul out in praise of her beauty and her glory,

it should be vouchsafed to plead from his grave for her, and

plead not in vain.

But Euripides rendered not only to his

country, but to all Greece, a yet higher, be-

•' ^ o woman.

cause a more enduring service, and one whose
effects went deeper into the national charadter. The reader
has doubtless been struck with the fadt that, though Ad-
metus in the play of Alcestis stands justified by the public
opinion of the drama, and by the audience, he yet re-
proaches himself in words even bitterer than the venomous
tongue of Pheres had found. Why ? Because Euripides
was not in heart at one with his countrymen with respedt
to the characfter, capabilities, and rights of woman ; and
here for the first time he strikes the new note. It was his
glory to have introduced and to have developed a new
and higher conception of woman. Lovely, gentle, noble,
devoted women had indeed been depicted in epic poetry;
but, ideal as these might be in beauty, their place in the
heroic age and in a state of society which had passed
away with the epoch of the despots made them too remote
from the daughters of his own day to be ideals for them.
The position of woman had, in fadt, become in the Attic age
degraded from the older type. In the city-life of the republic
women of the higher classes were no longer permitted the
old freedom, nor honoured with the same trust ; nor were

xliv EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

they regarded as equals or companions of their husbands.
In consequence probably of the influence of oriental example
on Greek life,i they lived in almost harem-like seclusion,
their liberty to go abroad being well-nigh limited to occasions
of religious festivals, and their daily companions being the
female slaves of their households. Such conditions reacted,
as they were sure to do, on female chara(5ter, fostering
frivolity, pettiness, intrigue and scandal-mongering. Men
became contemptuous and jealous of their wives, and were
ceasing to look for capacities of better things in them, while
the women were forgetting that they could be anything
nobler than drudges or dolls. Aeschylus and Sophocles
never touch upon this problem. There is no indication that
the former was conscious that a change was passing over
social life : the latter gives no hint that he regarded this
as other than the best of all possible worlds in that respedt.
But Euripides, to whom the sorrows and wrongs and perils
of humanity were a burden too heavy to bear, who palpitated
with indignation, and yearned with sympathy over the evils
wrought by human selfishness and blindness, set himself to
find the remedy. He did not assail the social system which
had perhaps originated, had certainly aggravated, the evil.
It may be that he did not clearly understand its history: it is
often no easy matter to distinguish between the mischief
done by institutions in the midst of which we live from that
which has its roots deeper in our propensities, our prejudices,
and our habits. Certainly his instindt was right in this
abstention : the sudden removal of the pressure of a social
or political injustice by no means involves the immediate
elevation of those who have been already degraded by it ;
rather, the first effedl often is to accentuate the evil, by
removing restraints before self-control has been learnt, or

I. See on the whole subject Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece, ch. vi.

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xlv

higher aims conceived. He set himself to appeal to human
hearts as he found them, to exalt men's estimate of woman,
to redeem women from despair of themselves, by uplifting
before them inspiring ideals of womanhood, which might be
types and examples for all time. And, first, he gave them
those transcendent four — who in the union of the sweetness
and lovable gentleness of the pure womanly with the mag-
nificent exaltation of the highest heroism are unapproached
by Homer's Penelope and Andromache, or by Sophocles'
Antigone. He gave them Alcestis, who surrendered her life
freely, not so much for her husband as for wifely duty's sake,
and never flinched nor faltered as the horror of great dark-
ness s-wallowed her up, but by strength of a mother's love
stayed up the feet that were sinking into Hades, till her
dying breath had made her children's future sure, and then
in death's grasp quietly laid her hand, and so was drawn
down, faintly and ever more faintly murmuring love. He
gave them Iphigeneia, who, summoned from the cloistered
shelter of her home as to a bridal, found herself set without
warning before the altar of death, and yet shrank and
shuddered onlj' till the full import of the great sacrifice de-
manded dawned upon her, and then sprang full-statured to
the height of a godlike resolve ; who grasped in her pure
hands tlie scales of national justice, who bore up with her
slender wrists the fate of her fatherland, and sang the
triumph-paean of Hellas as she paced to death. He gave
them Makaria, who attained a height of selfless heroism
unimagined till that hour, in that unasked she gave her life
for the salvation of a noble house and of alien helpers, who
refused to hearken to the suggestion which whispered a hope
of escape, but with unreverted eyes turned from all joys and
all hopes of young life, and spent her last breath in con-
solation and encouragement to those who clung with adoring
love and passionate tears about her parting feet. He gave

xlvi EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

them Polyxena, the most pathetic figure of all, sustained by
no proud consciousness of salvation wrought from suffering,
but only welcoming death as an angel of deliverance from
shame and long regrets, who stood on the grave-mound
arrayed in spotless innocence, with modest lips that calmly
made in the name of honour their last request, and so gave
her throat to the sword, while the fierce men who but now
had clamoured for her blood acclaimed her of all maidens
noblest of soul.

He brought before them women in all the relations of life,
everywhere surpassing the men in goodness, in constancy,
in wisdom in counsel. They watched the ministering angel
who sat by a brother's bed, and wiped the dew of agony from
his brow and the foam of madness from his lips : they held
their breath while a gentle-hearted priestess bemoaned to her
unknown brother the cruel destiny which even then drew
her to the verge of fratricide. They saw the wife who hailed
a death of fire to be re-united to her slain lord, and the wife
who devoted herself to save, or to die with, her husband.
They heard one mother plead the cause of honour and right
against cold statecraft : they listened as another besought
her doomed sons to be reconciled. They thrilled beholding
the princess-slave whose love was stronger than death, and
whose high-born spirit flashed defiance to a treacherous foe ;
and that other who, remembering her hero-husband, would
not suffer the imminent death to make herself or her children
play a craven part, but mingled proud scorn of the mur-
derous usurper with regrets for hopes foregone. In the noble
words of Professor Mahaffy, "These are the women who
have so raised the ideal of the sex, that in looking upon them
the world has passed from negle6t to courtesy, from courtesy
to veneration : these are they, who across many centuries,
first of frivolity and sensuaHty, then of rudeness and bar-
barism, join hands with the ideals of our religion and our

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xlvii

chivalry, the martyred saints, the chaste and holy virgins
of romance — nay more, with the true wives, the devoted
mothers, of our own day."'

But there are female characfters in his plays which have
been pointed to as proving a very different attitude to-
wards women. Of these, Pheedra was the best-abused by
his enemies, who wilfully shut their eyes to her true char-
a(5ter. She is, by the very plot of the play, the helpless
victim of the malice of a Goddess. With her brain be-
clouded by fever-frenzy, she agonizes for clear vision
and wails for peace of mind. She is a pure-souled, true-
hearted woman, who tingles with shame and shudders with
horror at the hideous thing that has been born in her. She
is driven by the imminence of ruin to a desperate expedient
to shield her name from the unmerited dishonour which she
might well believe, from the ambiguously-worded threat with
which Hippolytus departed, was to be cast upon her. He
gave her cause to think^ that he would accuse her to his
father of a crime of which she knew herself innocent. In
her despair, she saw no help but to forestall him by an
accusation equally false.

Medea and Kreusa, — even Klytemnestra and Hermione, —
are not portrayed as transgressors without excuse : in each
case the audience heard the woman plead her cause and
proclaim the doctrine that woman has rights as well as man,
that what man avenges as the inexpiable wrong is not a light
offence against her. It may well be that they were not ripe
for the reception of ideas so unheard of, that many of them
mistook his drift ; but the seed sank in, to bear fruit in due
time.

In each instance the sinner is a woman deeply wronged,

1. Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece, p. 204.

2. See Hippolytus, 11. 659 — 663, and 689 — 692.

xlviii EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

or in sore straits, or under dsemonic influence : tliere are no
such gratuitously wicked chara6lers as Goneril, Lady Mac-
betii, or Tamora. Yet no one calls Shakspeare a misogynist.
Why then was it possible for Euripides' enemies to charge
him with being one, a charge doubtless echoed by a good
many thoughtless and stupid people in his day, but little
creditable to modern scholarship ? For three reasons : — first,
the wilful or obtuse misunderstanding of such characters as
Phaedra : the representation of these by Euripides was the
main ground on which Aristophanes alleged that the ten-
dency of his plays was immoral. Secondly, we occasionally
come upon censures of the faults and foibles of women —
their proneness to scandal, to uncharitable judgments of
their fellows, their pettiness, frivolity, and so forth. It must
be admitted, too, that the context sometimes justifies us in
concluding that the poet is uttering his own sentiments. It
was indeed to be expedted that a thinker who had so high a
conception of what women might be should be painfully im-
pressed by the contrast presented by what they too often
were. Nor is it matter for wonder that he should take
opportunities of bringing the same feeling home to them. It
is not enough to set noble ideals before people who are not
yet conscious of the incompatibility of their present habits
and aims with the emulation of those ideals. Faithful are
the wounds of a friend, as indeed these were, compared with
the hideous presentments of female morality in which Aris-
tophanes revels, till his readers might imagine that pure and
temperate women were quite the exception in the Athens of
his day. And was not he a friend to women who gave, for
the sake of his sisters for whom heroic ideals might seem set
too high, this winsome model, " not too fair and good for
human nature's daily food ? " —

" Beauty wins not love for woman from the yokemate of her life:
Many an one by goodness wins it ; for to each true-hearted wife,

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. xlix

Knit in love unto her husband, is Discretion's secret told.
These her gifts are : — though her lord be all uncomely to behold,
To her heart and eyes shall he be comely, so her wit be sound ;
('Tis not eyes that judge the 7nan ; within is true discernment

found) : —
Whensoe'er he speaks, or holds his peace, shall she his sense

commend,
Prompt with sweet suggestion when with speech he fain would

please a friend : —
Glad she is, if aught untoward hap, to show she feels his care :
Joy and sorrow of the husband aye the loyal wife will share : —
Yea, if thou art sick, in spirit will thy wife be sick with thee.
Bear the half of all thy burdens — nought unsweet accounteth

she :
For with those we love our duty bids us taste the cup of bliss
Not alone, the cup of sorrow also — what is love but this ? "

{Fragment 901.)

Thirdly, here and there through his plays we find an
angry speech, or a inalicious epigram uttered, of course
in charadter, by some speaker who thus vents his spleen
against a woman. We find, on examination, that such
utterances are always put into the mouths of speakers who
are in the wrong, and would fain gloze their villainy, like
Jason and Polymestor, or are under a false impression at
the time, like Hippolytus. There are some dozen similar
passages preserved among the fragments of his lost plays,
and we are certainly justified in concluding that these also
were spoken in charadter.

Here, in fadt, is but another instance of that old, old
slavery to texts, which has in like manner led to so much
misuse of the Bible. A striking passage is often remembered
apart from its connedtion ; and it was so easy for the cynic
to use such to point a sneer, for the malicious critic to turn
them against the author, and for the angry liusband to carry
away and to quote, apart from the conveniently forgotten

Vol. II. d.

1 EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK.

context, lines which would in a domestic wrangle hit the wife
hard. But modern scholarship can hardly claim sober
critical judgment as its distinguishing feature so long as
quotations are in this unfair way given as though they
expressed the mind of the poet.

Euripides speaks not only for women, but
for the many whose souls were in his day
troubled by the riddle of the painful earth.
More perhaps than any other ancient writer he reveals
to us the true inner Greek life, lays bare the secrets of its
hearts. The fancy of our modern poet-aesthetes, that the
Greeks revelled in a careless buoyancy of existence, in
which beings of perfedt mould moved in a dream of beauty
through a fairyland of marble fashionings, their thoughts
kindling with music and song, and anon uplifted in serene
philosophies — this fades away into a dim background, and
the sad earnest faces grow upon us, the hearts that strain
beneath the burden of duty, the souls that weary over the
problems of right and wrong, the voices that moan the
unanswered question touching the mystery of suffering, the
women who beat against the bars of convention and pre-
scription, who wail for sympathy and plead for trust — these
who were too mean for Aeschylus' regard, too un-ideal for
Sophocles, these of whom Socrates took no heed, to whom
he left no legacy, to whose heart-hunger Plato offered the
stones of his ideal city. To all such Euripides stretched the
brother hand of one who had also passed through deep
waters, who had faced the spedlres of the mind, who sighed
with them that were desolate and oppressed, who came close
to each bereaved heart, sorrowing with stricken parents,
and loving the little children.

The true nature of the question at issue in the whole con-
troversy, ancient and modern, with respeft to the literary
merits of Euripides, cannot, I think, be better expressed

EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK. li

than in the words of Professor Moulton, in his Ancient
Classical Drama (p. i6o) : —

"Next to Shakespeare, Euripides has been the best abused poet
in the history of Hterature. And the reason is the same in both
cases : each has been associated prominently with a dramatic
revolution vast enough to draw out the fundamental difference
between two classes of minds — those that incline to a simple ideal
perfeiftly attained, and those that sympathize rather with a more
complex purpose which can be reached only through conflidl. The
changes in ancient drama promoted by this third of the three great
masters are all in the diredlion of modern variety and human
power : from the confined standpoint of Attic Tragedy they may
represent decay ; in the evolution of the universal drama they are
advance and development, Euripides laid the foundation for an
edifice of which the coping-stone is Shakespeare."

CONTENTS,

PREFACE ....
EURIPIDES AND HIS WORK .
ANDROMACHE

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES
THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY
ELECTRA ....
HELEN . . . •

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES

PAGE
V

vii
I

6i

113
177

251

347

ANDROMACHE,

Vol. II.

ARGUMENT.

When Troy was taken by the Greeks, Andromache, wife
of that Hector whom Achilles slew ere himself was
slain by the arrow which Apollo guided, was given in
the dividing of the spoils to Neoptolemus, Achilles' son.
So he took her oversea to the land of Thessaly, and
loved her, and entreated her kindly, and she bare him a
son in her captivity. But after ten years^ Neoptolemus
took to wife a princess of Sparta, Hermione, daughter
of Menelaus and Helen. But to these was no child
born, and the soul of Hermione grew bitter with jealousy
against Andromache. Now Neoptolemus, in his indig-
nation for his father's death, had upbraided Apollo
therewith : wherefore he now journeyed to Delphi, vainly
hoping by prayer and sacrifice to assuage the wrath of
the God. But so soon as he was gone, Hermioni
sought to avenge herself on Andromache ; and Menelaus
came thither also, and these twain went about to slay
the captive and her child. Wherefore Andromache hid
her son, and took sanctuary at the altar of the Goddess
Thetis, expecting till Peleus, her lord's grandsire, should
come to save her. And herein are set forth her sore
peril and deliverance : also it is told how Neoptolemus
found death at Delphi, and how he that contrived his
death took his wife.

1 See Odyssey, iv, 3— 9.

DRAMATIS PERSONS.

Andromache.
Handmaid, a Trojan captive.

Hermione. daughter of Menelaus, wife of Neoptokmus.
Menelaus, king of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon.
MoLOssus, son of Neoptolemus and Andromache.
Fel.'evs, father of Achilles.
Nurse of Hermione.
Orestes, son of Agamemnon.
Messenger.

Thetis, a Sea-goddess, wife of Peleus.
Chorus of maidens of Phthia in Thessaly.
A ttendants of Menelaus, Peleus, and Orestes.
Scene : — At the temple of Thetis, beside the palace of
Neoptolemus, in Phthia of Thessaly.

ANDROMACHE.

Andromache sitting on the steps of the altar of Thetis.

Andromache.

Beauty of Asian land, O town of Thebes,

Whence, decked with gold of costly bride-array,

To Priam's royal hearth long since I came

Espoused to Hector for his true-wed wife, —

I, envied in time past, Andromache, 5

But now above all others most unblest

Of women that have been or shall be ever ;

Who saw mine husband by Achilles slain,

Hector ; the child I bare unto my lord

Hurled from the towers' height, my Astyanax, 10

That day the Hellenes won the plain of Troy.

Myself a slave, accounted erst the child

Of a free house, none freer, came to Hellas,

Spear-guerdon chosen out for the island-prince,^

From Troy's spoil given to Neoptolemus. 15

Here on the marches 'twixt Pharsalia's town

And Phthia's plains I dwell, where that Sea-queen,

Thetis, with Peleus dwelt aloof from men,

1 Neoptolemus was born in Skyros, an island in the
Aegean sea.

ANDROMACHE.

Shunning the throng : wherefore Thessalians call it,

By reason of her bridal, " Thetis' Close." 20

Here made Achilles' son his dwelling-place,

And leaveth Peleus still Pharsalia's king,

Loth, while the ancient lives, to take his sceptre.

And I have borne a manchild in these halls

Unto Achilles' son, my body's lord ; 25

And, sunk albeit in misery heretofore.

Was aye lured on by hope, in my son's life

To find some help, some shield from all mine ills.

But since my lord hath wed Hermione

The Spartan, thrusting my thrall's couch aside, 30

With cruel wrongs she persecuteth me,

Saying that I by secret charms make her

A barren stock, and hated of her lord.

Would in her stead be lady of this house,

Casting her out, the lawful wife, by force : — 35

Ah me ! with little joy I won that place,

And now have yielded up : great Zeus be witness

That not of mine own will I shared this couch.

Yet will she not believe, but seeks to slay me ;

And her sire Menelaus helpeth her. 40

He hath come from Sparta, now is he within

For this same end, and I in fear have fled

To Thetis' shrine anigh unto this house.

And crouch here, so to be redeemed from death.

For Peleus and his seed revere this place, 45

This witness to the bridal of Nereus' child.

But him, mine only son, by stealth I send

To another's home, in dread lest he be slain.

For now his father is not nigh to aid.

Nor helps his son, being gone unto the land 50

Of Delphi, to atone to Loxias

EURIPIDES.

For that mad hour when Pytho-ward he went

And claimed redress of Phoebus for his sire,

If haply prayer for those transgressions past

Might win the God's grace for the days to be. 55

Enter Handmaid.

Handmaid,

Queen, — for I shun not by this name to call

Thee, which I knew thy right in that old home,

Thine home what time in Troyland we abode, —

I love thee, as I loved thy living lord ;

And now with evil tidings come to thee, 60

In dread lest any of our masters hear,

And ruth for thee ; for fearful plots are laid

Of Menelaus and his child : beware !

Andromache.

Dear fellow-thrall, — for fellow-thrall thou art
To her that once was queen, is now unblest, — 65

What do they ? — what new web of guile weave they
Who fain would slay the utter-wretched, me ?

Handmaid.

Thy son, O hapless, are they set to slay
Whom forth the halls thou tookest privily.

Andromache.

Woe ! — hath she learnt the hiding of my child ? 70
How ? — O unhappy, how am I undone !

Handmaid.

I know not : but themselves I heard say this.
Menelaus on his quest is now gone forth.

ANDROMACHE.

Andromache.

Undone ! — undone ! — O child, these vultures twain
Will clutch thee and will slay ! He that is named 75
Thy father, yet in Delphi Hngereth.

Handmaid.

I ween thou shouldst not fare so evilly

If he were here : but friendless art thou now.

Andromache.

Of Peleus' coming is there not a word ?

Handmaid.

Too old is he to help thee, were he here. 80

Andromache.

Yet did I send for him not once nor twice.

Handmaid.

Ah, dost thou think their messengers^ heed thee ?

Andromache.

How should they ? — Wilt thou be my messenger ?

Handmaid.

But how excuse long absence from the halls ?

1 The courier-slaves of Neoptolemus, who in his absence
are not likely to offend their mistress by doing Andromache
a service.

8 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.

Thou shalt find many pleas — a woman thou. 85

Handmaid.

'Twere peril : keen watch keeps Hermione.

Andromache.

Lo there ! — thy friends in woe dost thou renounce.

Handmaid.

No — no ! Cast thou no such reproach on me !

Lo, I will go. What matter is the life

Of a bondwoman, though I light on death ? 90

Andromache.

Go then : and I to heaven will lengthen out

My lamentations and my moans and tears,

Wherein I am ever whelmed. [Exit Handmaid.

'Tis in the heart
Of woman with a mournful pleasure aye
To bear on lip and tongue her present ills. 95

Not one have I, but many an one to moan —
The city of my fathers, Hector slain.
The ruthless lot whereunto I am yoked,

, Who fell on thraldom's day unmerited,

f Never may'st thou call any mortal blest, 100

^ Or ever thou hast seen his dying day.

Seen how he passed therethrough and came on death.

No bride was the Helen with whom unto steep-built
Ilium hasted

ANDROMACHE.

Paris ; — nay, bringing a Curse to his bowers of
espousal he passed,
For whose sake, Troy, by the thousand galleys of
Hellas wasted, 105

With fire and with sword destroyed by her fierce
battle-spirit thou wast ;
And Hector my lord by the scion of Thetis the Sea-
king's daughter —
O for mine anguish ! — was dragged round the
ramparts of Ilium dead ;
And myself from my bowers was haled to the strand of
the exile-water,
Casting the sore-loathed veil of captivity over mine
head. no

Ah but my tears were down-streaming in flood when
the galley swift-racing
Bore me afar from my town, from my bowers, from
my lord in the tomb.
Woe for mine anguish ! — what boots it on light any
more to be gazing.
Who am yonder Hermione's thrall ? — ever harried
and hunted of whom
Suppliant I cling to the Goddess's feet that mine hands
are embracing, 115

Wasting in tears as a spring welling forth from the
rock-riven gloom.

Enter Chorus of Phthian Maidens.

{Str. i)
Lady, who, suppliant crouched on the pavement of
Thetis' shrine,

Clingest long to thy sanctuary,
I daughter of Phthia, yet come unto thee of an Asian
line.

10 EURIPIDES.

If I haply may find for thee 120

Some healing or help for the tangle of desperate
trouble
Whose meshes of bitterest feud around thee and
Hermione twine,

For that, O thou afflicted one.
Ye twain are unequally yoked in the bride-bands double
That compass Achilles' son. 125

(Ant. i)
Look on thy lot, take account of the ills whereinto
thou art come.

Thy lady's rival art thou, —
An llian to rival a child of a lordly Laconian home !
Forsake thou the temple now
Wherein sheep to the Sea-queen are burned. What
boots it with wailing 130

And tears to consume thy beauty, aghast at oppression's
doom

Upon thee by thy lords' hands brought ?
The might of the strong overbeareth thee : all un-
availing

Is thy struggling — lo, thou art naught.

{Str. 2)
Nay, leave thou the holy place of the Lady of Nereus'
race: i35

Discern how thou needs must abide
In a land of strangers, an alien city
Where thou seest no friend, neither any to pity,
O thou who art whelmed in calamity's tide,

Unhappiest bride ! 140

(Ant. 2)
Sore grieved I, O llian dame, when thy feet unto these
halls came ;

ANDROMACHE. n

But I feared, for my lords be stern,
That I held my peace : but thy lot ill-fated
In silence aye 1 compassionated,
Lest the child of the daughter of Zeus^ should

discern i45

O'er thy woes how I yearn.

Enter Hermione.

Hermione.

With bravery of gold about mine head.

And on my form this pomp of broidered robes,

Hither I come : — no gifts be these I wear

Or from Achilles' or from Peleus' house ; 150

But from the Land Laconian Sparta-crowned

My father Menelaus with rich dower

Gave these, that so my tongue should not be tied.2

To you'^ I render answer in these words.

But thou, a woman-thrall, won by the spear, 155

Wouldst cast me out, and have this home thine own ;

And through thy spells I am hated by my lord ;

My womb is barren, ruined all of thee :

For cunning is the soul of Asia's daughters

For such deeds. Yet therefrom will I stay thee : 160

And this the Nereid's fane shall help thee nought,

Altar nor temple ; — thou shalt die, shalt die !

Yea, though one stoop to save thee, man or God,

Yet must thou for thy haughty spirit of old

1 Hermione, daughter of Helen.

2 That, feeling herself independent of her husband, she
might speak as freely as she pleased.

3 The Chorus, who had said nothing to her, but whose
sympathies had been indicated in their choral-chant.

13 EURIPIDES.

Crouch low abased, and grovel at my knee, 165

And sweep mine house, and sprinkle water dews

There from the golden ewers with thine hand.

And where thou art, know. Hector is not here.

Nor Priam, nor his gold : a Greek town this.

Yet to such follyi hast thou come, O wretch, 170

That with this son of him who slew thy lord

Thou dar'st to lie, and to the slayer bear

Sons ! Suchlike is the whole barbaric race : —

Father with daughter, son with mother weds.

Sister with brother : kin the nearest wade 175

Through blood : no whit hereof doth law forbid.

Bring not such things midst us, who count it shame

That o'er two wives one man hold wedlock's reins ;

But to one lawful love they turn their eyes,

Content — save such as fain would live in sin. 180

Chorus.

In woman's heart is jealousy inborn,
'Tis bitterest unto wedlock-rivals aye.

Andromache.

Out upon thee !

A curse is youth to mortals, when with youth

A man hath not implanted righteousness! 185

I fear me lest with thee my thraldom bar

Defence, though many a righteous plea I have,

And even my victory turn unto mine hurt.

They that are arrogant brook not to be

^ dfjiaOia, used of a woman, had the same sense as
*• folly " in the A.V.

ANDROMACHE.

13

In argument o'ermastered by the lowly : 190

Yet will I not abandon mine own cause.

Say, thou rash girl, in what assurance strong

Should I thrust thee from lawful wedlock-rights ?

Is Sparta meaner than the Phrygians' burg ?

Soareth my fortune ? — dost thou see me free ? 195

Or by my young and rounded lovehness,

My city's greatness, and my noble friends

Exalted, would I wrest from thee thine home ?

Sooth, to bear sons myself instead of thee—

Slave-sons, a wretched drag upon my life ! 200

Nay, though thou bear no children, who will brook

That sons of mine be lords of Phthia-land ?

O yea, the Greeks love me — for Hector's sake ! —

Myself obscure, nor ever a Phrygian queen !

Not of my philtres thy lord hateth thee, 205

But that thy nature is no mate for his.

That is the love-charm : woman, 'tis not beauty

That witcheth bridegrooms, nay, but nobleness.

Let aught vex thee — O then a mighty thing

Is thy Laconian city, Skyros naught ! 210

Thy wealth thou flauntest, settest above Achilles

Menelaus : therefore thy lord hateth thee.

A wife, though low-born be her lord, must yet

Content her, without wrangling arrogance.

But if in Thrace with snow-floods overstreamed 215

Thou hadst for lord a prince, where one man shares

His couch's boon in turn with many wives,

Wouldst thou have slain these ? — ay, and so be found

Branding all women with the slur of lust —

A shameful thing ! Yet herein more than men's 220

Is our affliction ; but we bear up bravely.

Ah, dear, dear Hector, I would take to my heart

14 EURIPIDES.

Even thy leman, if Love tripped thy feet.

Yea, often to thy bastards would I hold

My breast, that I might give thee none offence. 225

So doing, I drew with cords of wifely love

My lord : — but thou for jealous fear forbiddest

Even gloaming's dews to drop upon thy lord !

Seek not to o'erpass in lavishness of love

Thy mother, lady. Daughters in whom dwells 230

Discretion, ought to flee vile mothers' paths.

Chorus.

Mistress, so far as lightly thou may'st do.
Deign to make truce with her from wordy strife.

Hermione.

And speak'st thou loftily, and wranglest thou,

As thou wert continent, I of continence void ? 235

Andromache.
Void ? — Yea, if thou be judged by this thy claim.

Hermione.
Never in my breast thy discretion dwell !

Andromache.
A young wife thou for such immodest words.

Hermione.

Words ? — thine are deeds, to the uttermost of thy
power.

ANDROMACHE. 15

Andromache.
Cannot thy hungry jealousy hold its peace ? 240

Hermione.
Why ? Stands not this right first with women ever ?

Andromache.
With whom it is for honour : else, 'tis shame.

Hermione.
We live not under laws barbaric here.

Andromache.
There, even as here, the foul deed brings disgrace.

Hermione.
Keen-witted ! keen ! — yet shalt thou surely die. 245

Andromache.
Seest thou the eye of Thetis turned on thee ?

Hermione.
In hate of thy land for Achilles' blood.

Andromache.
Helen slew him, not I ; thy mother — thine !

Hermione.
And wilt thou dare yet deeper prick mine hurt ?

Andromache.
Lo, I am silent, and I curb my mouth. 250

i6 EURIPIDES.

Hermione.
Tell me that thing for which I came to thee.^

Andromache.
I say thou hast less wit than thou dost need.

Hermione.
Wilt leave this hallowed close of the Sea-goddess ?

Andromache.
If I shall not die : else, I leave it never.

Hermione.
'Tis fixed : I wait not till my lord return. 255

Andromache.
Yet will I yield me not ere then to thee.

Hermione.
Fire will I bring : thy plea will I not heed, —

Andromache.
Kindle upon me ! — this the Gods shall mark.

Hermione.
And to thy flesh bring anguish of dread wounds.

Andromache.
Hack, crimson her altar : she shall visit for it. 260

1 i.e. Confess the sorceries by which you have stolen my
husband's love. Andromache's reply may express both
contempt for her ignorant credulity, and a reference to
11. 205 — 212

ANDROMACHE. 17

Hermione.

Barbarian chattel ! Stubborn impudence !

Dost thou brave death ! — Soon will I make thee rise

From this thy session, yea, of thine own will ;

Such lure have I for thee : — yet will I hide

The word : the deed itself shall soon declare. 265

Ay, sit thou fast ! — though clamps of molten lead

Encompassed thee, yet will I make thee rise.

Ere come Achilles' son, in whom thou trustest. [Exit.

Andromache.

I do trust .... Strange that God hath given to men

Salves for the venom of all creeping pests, 270

But none hath ever yet devised a balm

For venomous woman, worse than fire or viper :

So dire a mischief unto men are we.

Chorus.

(Str. i)
Herald of woes, to the glen deep-hiding

In Ida came Zeus's and Maia's soni ;
As who reineth a triumph of white steeds, ^ guiding

The Goddesses three, did the God pace on.
With frontlet of beauty, with trappings of doom,
For the strife to the steadings of herds did they come,
To the stripling shepherd in sohtude biding, [280

And the hearth of the lodge in the forest lone.

1 Hermes, who brought Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite to
the judgment of Paris.

2 Cf. " I have compared thee, O my love, to a company
of horses in Pharaoh's chariots." {Song of Songs, i, g).

Vol. H. C.

i8 EURIPIDES.

{Ant i)
They have passed 'neath the leaves of the glen : from
the plashing
Of the mountain-spring radiant in rose-flush they
rise.
To the King's Son they wended, while to and fro
flashing
The gibes of their lips matched the scorn of their
eyes. 2go

But 'twas Kypris by promise of guile overcame —
Ah sweet to the ear, but for deathless shame
And confusion to Phrygia, when Troy's towers
crashing
Ruinward toppled — her bitter prize !

(Str. 2)
Oh had she dealt him, that mother which bore him,

A death-blow cleaving his head in twain,
When shrieked Kassandra her prophecy o'er him, —

Ere his eyry on Ida o'erlooked Troy's plain, —
By the sacred bay shrieked " Slay without pity
The curse and the ruin of Priam's city ! "
Unto prince, unto elder, she came, to implore him 300
To slay it, the infant foredoomed their bane.

{Ant. 2)
Then had he never been made an occasion

Of thraldom to Ilium's daughters : O queen.
Thy suppliant seat were the throne of a nation ;

Nor the ten years' agony then had ye seen.
With the war-cries of Hellas aye rolling their thunder
Round Troy, with spear-lightnings aye flashing there-
under ;
Nor the couch of the bride were a desolation.
Nor bereft of their sons had the grey sires been.

ANDROMACHE. 19

Enter Menelaus, with attendants, bringing Molossus.

Menelaus.

I have caught thy son, whom thou didst hide, unmarked

Of this my daughter, in a neighbour house. 310

So thee this Goddess' image, was to save,

Him, they that hid him ! — but thou hast been found,

Woman, less keen of wit than Menelaus.

Now if thou leave not and avoid this iioor.

He shall be slaughtered, he, in thy life's stead. 315

Weigh this then, whether thou consent to die,

Or that for thy transgression he be slain,

Even thy sin against me and my child.

Andromache.

Ah reputation ! — many a man ere this

Of none account hast thou set up on high. 320

Such as have fair fame based upon true worth

Happy I count : but for these living lies

I grant no claim to wisdom save chance show.

Thou, captaining the chosen men of Greece, [325

Didst thou, weak dastard, wrest from Priam Troy,

Who at thy daughter's bidding, she a child,

Dost breathe such fury, enterest the lists

With a woman, a poor captive ? I count Troy

Shamed by thy touch, thee by her fall unraised !

Goodly in outward show be they which seem 330

Wise, but within they are as other men.

Save in wealth haply ; this is their great strength.

Menelaus, come now, reason we together : —

Grant that thy child have slain me, grant me dead :

Ne'er shall she flee my blood's pollution -curse ; 335

20 EURIPIDES.

And in men's eyes shalt thou too share this guilt :

Thy part in this her deed shall weigh thee down.

But if I 'scape your hands, that I die not,

Then will ye slay my son ? And the child's death —

Think ye his sire shall hold it a Httle thing ? 340

So void of manhood Troy proclaims him not.

Nay, he shall follow duty's call, be proved.

By deeds, of Peleus worthy and Achilles.

He shall thrust forth thy child. What plea wilt findi

For a new spouse ? — This lie — " the saintly soul 345

Of this pure thing shrank from her wicked lord ? "

Who shall wed such ? Wilt keep her in thine halls

Spouseless, a grey-haired widow ? O thou wretch,

Seest not the floods of evil bursting o'er thee ?

How many a wedlock-wrong wouldst thou be fain 350

Thy child knew rather than the ills I name !

We ought not for slight cause court grievous harm ;

Nor, if we women be a baleful curse,

Ought men to make their nature woman-like.

For, if I practise on thy child by philtres, 355

And seal her womb, according to her tale.

Willingly, nothing loth, nor low at altars

Crouching, myself will face the penalty

At her lord's hands, to whom I am guilty of wrong

No less, in blasting him with childlessness. 36a

Hereon I stand : — but one thing in thy nature

I fear — 'twas in a woman's quarrel too

Thou didst destroy the hapless Phrygians' town.

Chorus.

Thou hast said too much, as woman against man :
Yea, and thy soul's discretion hath shot wide. 365

1 To explain away, when you wish to find her a new
husband, the stigma of her previous divorce.

ANDROMACHE. 21

Menelaus.

Woman, these are but trifles, all unworthy

Of my state royal, — thou say'st it, — and of Greece.

Yet know, when one hath set his heart on aught,

More than to take a Troy is this to him.

I stand my daughter's champion, for I count 370

No trifle robbery of marriage-right.

Nought else a wife may suffer matcheth this.

Losing her husband, she doth lose her life.

Over my thralls her lord hath claim to rule,

And over his like right have I and mine : 375

For nought that friends have, if true friends they be,

Is private : held in common is all wealth.

Waiting the absent, if I order not

Mine own things well, weak am I, and not wise.

But I will make thee leave the Goddess' shrine. 380

For, if thou die, this boy escapeth doom ;

But, if thou wilt not die, him will I slay.

One of you twain must needs bid life farewell.

Andromache.

Woe ! Dire lot-drawing, bitter choice of life.

Thou giv'st me ! If I draw, I am wretched made ; 385

And if I draw not, all unblest 1 am.

O thou for paltry cause that dost great wrong,

Hearken : why slay me ? — for what crime ? — what town

Have I betrayed ? — have slain what child of thine ? —

Have fired what home ? Beside my lord I couched 390

Perforce — and lo, thou wilt slay me, not him,

The culprit ; but thou passest by the cause,

And to the after issue hurriest.

Woe for these ills ! O hapless fatherland,

22 EURIPIDES.

What wrongs I bear ! Why must I be a mother, 395

And add a double burden to my load ?

Why wail the past, and o'er the present woes

Shed not a tear, nor take account thereof ?

I saw dead Hector trailed behind the car,

Saw Ilium piteously enwrapped in flame. 400

I passed aboard the Argive ships, a slave

Haled by mine hair, and when to Phthia-land

I came, to Hector's murderers was I wed.

What joy hath life for me ? — what thing to look to ?

Unto my present fortune, or the past ? 405

This one child had I left, light of my life :

Him will these slay who count this righteousness.

No, never ! — if my wretched life can save !

For him, for him, hope lives, if he be saved ;

And mine were shame to die not for my child. 410

Lo, I forsake the altar — yours I am

To hack, bind, murder, strangle with the cord ! [Rises.

O child, thy mother, that thou may'st not die,

Passeth to Hades. If thou 'scape the doom,

Think on thy mother — how I suffered — died ! 415

And to thy sire with kisses and with tears

Streaming, and little arms about his neck.

Tell how I fared ! To all mankind, I wot.

Children are life. Who scoffs at joys unproved,

Though less his grief, a void is in his bliss. 420

Chorus.

Pitying I hear : for pitiful is woe

To all men, alien though the afflicted be.

Thou shouldest, Menelaus, reconcile

Her and thy child, that she may rest from pain.

[^Andromache leaves the altar.

ANDROMACHE, 23

Menelaus.

Seize me this woman ! — round her coil your arms, 425

My thralls ! No words of friendship shall she hear.

I, that thou mightest leave the holy altar,

Held forth the lure of thy child's death, and drew thee

To slip into mine hands for slaughtering.

And, for thy fate, know thou that this is so : 430

But for thy son, my child shall be his judge,

Whether her pleasure be to slay or spare.

Hence to the house, that thou, slave as thou art,

May'st learn no more to rail against the free.

Andromache.

Woe's me ! By guile thou hast stoln on me ! — be-
trayed ! 435

Menelaus.
Publish it to the world ! Not I deny it.

Andromache.
Count ye this wisdom, dwellers by Eurotas ?

Menelaus.
Yea, and in Troy — that wronged ones should revenge.

Andromache.
Is there no God, think'st thou, nor reckoning-day ?

Menelaus.
I'll meet it when it comes. Thee will I kill. 440

24 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.

And this my birdie, torn from 'neath my wings ?

Menelaus.

O nay — I yield him to my daughter's mercy.

Andromache.

Woe ! Why not wail for thee straightway, my child ?

Menelaus.

Good sooth, but sorry hope remains for him.

Andromache.

O ye in all folk's eyes most loathed of men, 445

Dwellers in Sparta, senates of treachery,
Princes of Hes, weavers of webs of guile.
Thoughts crooked, wholesome never, devious all, —
A crime is your supremacy in Greece ! [450

What vileness lives not with you ?— swarming murders ?
Covetousness ? — O ye convict of saying
This with the tongue, while still your hearts mean that !
Now ruin seize ye ! Yet to me is death
Not grievous as thou think'st. That was my death
When Phrygia's hapless city was destroyed, 455

And my renowned lord, whose spear full oft
Made thee a seaman, dastard, from a landsman. ^
Thou meet'st a woman, soul-appalling hero,
Now,— and wouldst kill. Slay on !— my tongue shall
fawn

1 i.e., Drove thee to seek refuge in the galleys that lay
along the shore. See Iliad, bk. xv.

ANDROMACHE. 25

In flattery never on thy child or thee. 460

What if thou be in Sparta some great one ?
Even so in Troy was I. Am I brought low ?
Boast not herein : — thine hour shall haply come.

Chorus.

(Str. i)
Never rival brides blessed marriage-estate,

Neither sons not born of one mother :
They were strife to the home, they were anguish of

hate.
For the couch of the husband suffice one mate :

Be it shared of none other. 470

{A7lt. i)

Never land but hath borne a twofold yoke

Of kings with wearier straining :
There is burden on burden, and feud mid her folk :
And 'twixt rival lyres ever discord broke
By the Muses' ordaining.

(Str. 2)
When the blasts hurl onward the staggering sail,

Shall the galley by helmsmen twain be guided ? 480
Shall the wisdom of many in counsel avail

As the purpose untrammelled, the strength undivi-
ded ?
Even this in the home, in the city, is power
Unto such as have wit to discern the hour.

{Ant. 2)
The child of the chieftain of Sparta's array

Hath proved it. As fire is her jealousy burning :
Troy's hapless daughter she lusteth to slay.

And her son, in her hatred's vengeance-yearning. 490
Godless and lawless and heartless it is ! —
Queen, thou shalt yet be requited for this.

26 EURIPIDES.

Lo, these I behold, twain yoked as one

In love, in sorrow, afront of the hall :
For the vote is cast and the doom forth gone.
O woeful mother, O hapless son,

Who must die since her master hath humbled his

thrall, [500

Though nought death-worthy hast thou, child, done,

That in condemnation of kings thou shouldst fall 1

(Str.)

Andromache.

Lo, blood my wrists red-staining
From cruel bonds hard-straining,
Lo, feet the grave's brink gaining !

MOLOSSUS.

O mother, 'neath thy wing
I crouch where death-shades gather.

Andromache.

Death ! — Phthians, name it rather
Butchery !

MoLossus.

O my father,
Help to thy loved ones bring !

Andromache.

There, darling, shalt thou rest 510

Pillowed upon my breast.

Where corpse to corpse shall cling.

ANDROMACHE. 27

MOLOSSUS.

Ah me, the torture looming
O'er me, o'er thee ! — the coming.
Mother, of what dread thing ?

Menelaus.

Down, down to the grave ! — from our foemen's towers

Ye came : and for several cause unto slaughter
Ye twain be constrained. The sentence is ours

That condemneth thee, woman : this boy my daughter
Hermione dooms. Utter folly it were 520

For our foemen's avenging their offspring to spare,
When into our hands they be given to slay.
That fear from our house may be banished for aye.

(Ant.)

Andromache.

Oh for that hand I cry on !
Ah husband, to rely on
Thy spear, O Priam's scion !

MoLOSSUS.

Ah woe is me ! What spell
Find I for doom's undoing ?

Andromache.

Pray, at thy lord's knees suing,
Child !

MoLossus (kneeling to Menelaus).

Friend, in mercy ruing 530

My death, of pardon tell !

28 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.

My streaming eyelids weep,
As from a sheer crag's steep
The sunless waters well.

MOLOSSUS.

Woe's me ! O might revealing
But come of help, of healing.
Our darkness to dispel !

Menelaus.

What dost thou to fall at my feet, making moan
To a rock of the sea, to a wave doom-crested ?

True helper am I, good sooth, to mine own :

No love-spell from thee on my spirit hath rested. 540

Too deeply it drained my life-blood away

To win yon Troy and thy dam for a prey.
Herein be thy joy and be this thy crown
When thou passest to Hades' earth-dens down !

Chorus.

Lo, lo, I see yon Peleus drawing nigh ! 545

In haste his aged foot strides hitherward.

Enter Peleus, attended.

Peleus.

Ho ye ! ho thou, the overseer of slaughter !
What meaneth this ? — how is the house, and why.
In evil case ? What lawless plots weave ye ?
Menelaus, hold ! Press not where justice bars. 550

J

ANDROMACHE. 29

[To attendant] Lead the way faster! 'Tis a strait,

methinks,
Brooks no delay ; but now, if ever, fain
Would I renew the vigour of my youth.
But first, like breeze that fills the sails, will I
Breathe life through her : — say, by what right have these
Pinioned thine hands in bonds, and with thy son [555
Hale^for like ewe with lamb thou goest to death —
Whilst I and thy true lord be far away ?

Andromache.

These, ancient, deathward hale me with my child,

As thou dost see. Why should I tell it thee ? 560

Seeing not once I sent thee instant summons,

But by the mouth of messengers untold.

Thou know'st, hast heard, I trow, the household-strife

Of yon man's daughter, that means death to me.

And now from Thetis' altars, — hers who bare 565

Thy noble son, hers whom thou reverencest, —

They tear, they hale me, with no form of trial

Condemning, for the absent waiting not,

My lord, but knowing my defencelessness,

And this poor child's, the utter-innocent, 570

Whom they would slay along with hapless me.

But I beseech thee, ancient, falling low

Before thy knees — I cannot stretch my hand

Unto thy beard, O dear, O kindly face ! —

In God's name save, else I shall surely die, 575

To your shame, ancient, and my misery.

Peleus.

Loose, I command, her bonds, ere some one rue,
And set ye free this captive's pinioned hands.

30

EURIPIDES.

Menelaus.

This I forbid, who am no less than thou,

And have more right of lordship over her. 580

Peleus.

How ? — hither wilt thou come to rule mine house ?
Sufficeth not thy sway of Sparta's folk ?

Menelaus.

'Twas I that took her captive out of Troy.

Peleus.

Ay, but my son's son gained her, prize of war.

Menelaus.

All mine are his, his mine — is this not so ? 585

Peleus.

For good, not evil dealing, nor for murder.

Menelaus.
Her shalt thou rescue never from mine hand.

Peleus.
This staff shall make thine head to stream with blood.

Menelaus.
Touch me, and thou shalt see ! — ay, draw but near !

ANDROMACHE. 31

Peleus.

Thou, thou a man ? — Coward, of cowards bred ! 590

What part or lot hast thou amongst true men ?

Thou, by a Phrygian from thy wife divorced,

Who leftest hearth and home unbarred, unwarded.

As who kept in his halls a virtuous wife, —

And she the vilest ! Though one should essay, 595

Virtuous could daughter of Sparta never be.

They gad abroad with young men from their homes.

And with bare thighs and loose disgirdled vesture

Race, wrestle with them, — things intolerable

To me ! And is it wonder- worthy then 60a

That ye train not your women to be chaste ?

This well might Helen have asked thee, who forsook

Thy love, and from thine halls went revelling forth

With a young gallant to an alien land.

Yet for her sake thou gatheredst that huge host 605

Of Greeks, and leddest them to Ilium.

Thou shouldst have spued her forth, have stirred no

spear.
Who hadst found her vile, but let her there abide,
Yea, paid a price to take her never back.
But nowise thus the wind of thine heart blew. 610

Nay, many a gallant life hast thou destroyed,
And childless made grey mothers in their halls,
And white-haired sires hast robbed of noble sons ; —
My wretched self am one, who see in thee.
Like some foul fiend, Achilles' murderer; — 615

Thou who alone unwounded cam'st from Troy,
And daintiest arms in dainty sheaths unstained,
Borne thither, hither back didst bring again !
I warned my bridegroom-grandson not to make

32 EURIPIDES.

Affinity with thee, nor to receive 620

In his halls a wanton's child : such bear abroad
Their mothers' shame. Give heed to this my rede,
Wooers, — a virtuous mother's daughter choose.
Nay more — how didst thou outrage thine own brother,
Bidding him sacrifice his child — poor fool ! 625

Such was thy dread to lose thy worthless wife.
And, when Troy fell, — ay, thither too I trace thee, —
Thy wife thou slew'st not when thou hadst her trapped.
Thou saw'st her bosom, didst let fall the sword,
Didst kiss her, that bold traitress, fondhng her, 630
By Kypris overborne, O recreant wretch !
And to my son's house com'st thou, he afar.
And ravagest, wouldst slay a hapless woman
Unjustly, and her boy ? — this boy shall make
Thee, and that daughter in thine halls, yet rue, 635
Though he were thrice a bastard. Oft the yield
Of barren ground o'erpasseth deep rich soil ;
And better are bastards oft than sons true-born.
Take hence thy daughter ! Better 'tis to have
The poor and upright, or for marriage-kin, 640

Or friend, than the vile rich :— thou, thou art naught !

Chorus.

From small beginnings bitter feuds the tongue
Brings forth : for this cause wise men take good heed
That with their friends they bring not strife to pass.

Menelaus.

Now wherefore should ye call the greybeards wise, 645
And them which Greece accounted prudent once ?
When thou, thou Peleus, son of sire renowned,

ANDROMACHE, 33

Speakest, my marriage-kinsman, thine own shame,

Rail'st on me for a foreign woman's sake,

Whom thou shouldst chase beyond the streams of

Nile, 650

And beyond Phasis, yea, and cheer me on, —
This dame of Asia's mainland, wherein fell
Unnumbered sons of Hellas slain with spears, —
This woman who had part in thy son's blood ;
For Paris, he that slew thy son Achilles, 655

Was Hector's brother, and she Hector's wife.
And wouldst thou pass beneath one roof with her,
And stoop to break bread with her at thy board,
In thine house let her bear our bitterest foes.
Whom I, of forethought for thyself and me, 660

Would slay ?— and lo, from mine hands is she torn !^
Come, reason we together — no shame this : —
If my child bear no sons, this woman's brood
Grow up, wilt thou establish these as lords
Of Phthia-land ? — shall they, barbarians born, 665

Rule Greeks ? And I, forsooth, am all unwise.
Who hate the wrong, but wisdom dwells with thee !
Consider this, too — hadst thou given thy daughter
To a citizen, and she were thus misused,
Hadst thou sat still ? I trow not. Yet thou railest 670
Thus for an alien's sake on friends, on kin !
'• Yet husband's cause " — say'st thou — " and wife's

alike
Are strong, if she be wronged of him, or he
Find her committing folly in his halls."
Yea, but in his hands is o'ermastering strength, 675

1 Or (Paley), "Would from thine hands pluck with in-
tent to slay ! "

Vol. II. D

34 EURIPIDES.

But upon friends and parents leans her cause.

Do I not justly then to aid mine own ?

Dotard — thou dotard ! — thou wouldst help me more

By praise than slurring of my leadership ! [680

Not of her will, but Heaven's, came Helen's trouble ;

And a great boon bestowed she thus on Greece ;

For they which were unschooled to arms and fight

Turned them to brave deeds : fellowship in arms

Is the great teacher of all things to men.

And if I, soon as I beheld my wife, 685

Forebore to slay her, wise was I herein.

'Twere well had Phokus ne'er been slain by thee.^

Thus have I met thee in goodwill, not wrath.

If thou wax passionate, thou shalt but win

An aching tongue : my gain in forethought lies. 690

Chorus.

Refrain, refrain you — better far were this —
From idle words, lest both together err.

Peleus.

Ah me, what evil customs hold in Greece !

When hosts rear trophies over vanquished foes,

Men count not this the battle-toiler's work ; 695

Nay, but their captain filcheth the renown :

Amidst ten thousand one, he raised a spear.

Wrought one man's work— no more ; yet hath more

praise.
In proud authority's pomp men sit, and scorn

1 Half-brother of Peleus and Telamon, murdered because
he surpassed them in heroic exercises.

ANDROMACHE. 35

The city's common folk, though they be naught.^ 700
Yet are those others wiser a thousandfold, —
Had wisdom but audacity for ally.
Even so thou and thy brother sit enthroned,
For Troy puffed up, and that your generalship,
By others' toils and pains exalted high. 705

But I will teach thee nevermore to count
Paris of Ida foe more stern than Peleus,
Except thou vanish from this roof with speed,
Thou and thy childless daughter, whom my son
By the hair shall grasp and hale her through these
halls, — • 710

The barren heifer, who will not endure
The fruitful, seeing herself hath children none !
What, if her womb from bearing is shut up.
Childless of issue must mine house abide ?
Hence from her, thralls ! — E'en let me see the man 715
Will let me from unmanacling her hands !
Uplift thee, that the trembling hands of eld
May now unravel these thongs' twisted knots.
Thus, O thou dastard, hast thou galled her wrists ?
Didst think to enmesh a bull or lion here ?- 720

Didst fear lest she should snatch a sword, and chase
Thee hence ? Steal hither 'neath mine arms, my bairn :
Help loose thy mother's bonds. I'll rear thee yet
In Phthia, their grim foe. If spear-renown

I " There thou might'st behold
The great image of authority :
A dog's obeyed in office." King Lear, iv, 6.

^ " Hard bound with hempen span,
As though they held a lion there,
And not a fenceless man."

(Aytoun : Execution of Montrose.)

36 EURIPIDES.

And battle-fame be ta'en from Sparta's sons, 725

In all else are ye meanest of mankind.

Chorus.

This race of old men may no man restrain,
Nor guard him 'gainst their sudden-fiery mood.

Menelaus.

O'erhastily thou rushest into railing.

I came to Phthia not for violent deeds, ^ 730

And will do nought unkingly, nor endure.

Now, seeing that my leisure serveth not.

Home will I go ; for not from Sparta far

Some certain town there is, our friend, time was,

But now our foe : against her will I march, 735

Leading mine host, and bow her 'neath my sway.

Soon as things there be ordered to my mind,

I will return, will meet my marriage-kin

Openly, speak my mind, and hear reply.

And, if he punish her, and be henceforth 740

Temperate, he shall find me temperate too,

But, if he rage, shall meet his match in rage, \

Yea, shall find deeds of mine to match his own. i

But, for thy words, nothing I reck of them ; I

Thou art like a creeping shadow, voice thine all, 745 I

Impotent to do anything save talk.

[Exit.
Peleus.

Pass on, my child, sheltered beneath mine arms,
1 A I. in mine own despite.

ANDROMACHE. 37

And, hapless, thou. Caught in a raging storm,
Thou hast come into a windless haven's calm.

Andromache.

The Gods reward thee, ancient, thee and thine, 750
Who hast saved my son and me the evil-starred 1
Yet see to it, lest, where loneliest is the way.
These fall on us, and hale me thence by force,
Marking how thou art old, how I am weak.
This boy a babe : give thou heed unto this, 755

Lest, though we 'scape now, we be taken yet.

Peleus.

Out on thy words — a woman's faint-heart speech !
Pass on : whose hand shall stay you ? — He shall rue
Who toucheth. By heaven's grace o'er hosts of horse-
men
And countless men-at-arms I rule in Phthia. 760

I am yet unbowed, not old as thou dost think.
Yea, if I flash but a glance on such an one,
Shall I put him to rout, old though I be.
Stronger a stout-heart greybeard is than youths
Many : what boots a coward's burly bulk ? 765

\_Exeiint Peleus, Andromache, Molossus
and Attendants.

Chorus.

{Str.)
Thou wert better unborn, save of noble fathers

Descended, in halls of the rich thou abide.

If the high-born have wrong, for his championing

gathers 770

A host that shall strike on his side.

38 EURIPIDES.

There is honour for them that be pubhshed the scions
Of princely houses : the tide
Of time never drowneth the story

Of fathers heroic : it flasheth defiance

To death from its deathless glory.

{Ant.)

But a victory stained — ah, best forego it, [780

If thy triumph must wrest to thy shame the right :
Yea, 'tis sweet at the first unto mortals, I know it ;

But barren in time's long flight
Doth it wax : 'tis as infamy's cloud o'er thy towers.
Nay, this be my song, the delight
Of my days, and the prize worth winning, —
That I wield no dominion, in home's bride-bowers,
Nor o'er men, that I may not unsinning.

(Epode)
O ancient of Aiakus' line,^ 790

Now know I, when Lapithans dashing on Centaurs
charged victorious,

There did thy world-famed war-spear shine, —
That, on Argo riding the havenless brine.
Thou didst burst through the gates of the Clashing
Rocks on the sea-quest glorious ;

And when great Zeus' son in the days over-
past
Round Ilium the meshes of slaughter had cast.
As ye sped unto Europe returning, there too was thy
fame's star burning, 800

For the half of the glory was thine.

1 The following lines refer to Peleus' share in (i) the
victory of the Lapithas over the Centaurs, (2) the Argonauts'
quest of the Golden Fleece, (3) the expedition of Herakles
against Troy.

ANDROMACHE. 39

Enter Nurse.

Nurse.

0 dear my friends, how evil in the steps
Of evil on this day still followeth !

For now my lady Hermione within,

Deserted by her father, conscience-stricken 805

For that her plotted crime of slaughtering

Andromache and her son, is fain to die,

Dreading her husband, lest for these her deeds

He drive her from yon halls with infamy,

Or lest she die, who would have slain the guiltless. 810

And scarce, when she essayed to hang herself,

Her watching servants stayed her, from her hand

Catching the sword and wresting it away ;

With such fierce anguish seeth she her sins

Already wrought. O friends, my strength is spent 815

Dragging my mistress from the noose of death !

Oh, enter ye yon halls, deliver her

From death : for oft new-comers more prevail

In such an hour than one's famiHar friends.

Chorus.

Lo, in the palace hear we servants' cries 820

Touching that thing whereof thou hast made report.
Hapless ! — she is like to prove how bitterly
She mourns her crimes : for, fleeing forth the house
Eager to die, she hath 'scaped her servants' hands.

Hermione rushes on to the stage.

Hermione.

{Sir. i)
Woe's me ! with shriek on shriek

1 will make of mine hair a rending, will tear with ruining

fingers my red-furrowed cheek !

40 EURIPIDES.

Nurse.

Daughter, what wilt thou do ? — wilt mar thy form ?

Hermione.

(Ant. i)
Alas, and well-a-day !

Hence from mine head, thou gossamer-thread of my

wimple ! — float on the wind away ! 830

Nurse.

Child, veil thy bosom, gird thy vesture-folds !

Hermionk.

{Str. 2)

What have I to do, with my vesture to veil

My bosom, when bared are the crimes 1 have dared

against my lord, bared naked to light ?

Nurse.

Griev'st thou to have contrived thy rival's death ?

Hermione.

{Aiit. 2)
O yea, for my murderous daring I wail,
For my fury-burst, O woman accurst ! — O woman
accurst in all men's sight !

Nurse.

Thy lord shall yet forgive thee this thy sin. 840

Hermione.

O why didst thou wrest that sword from mine
hand ?

ANDROMA CHE. 41

Give it back, give it back, dear friend ; be the

brand
Thrust home ! — mine hanging why didst thou

withstand ?

Nurse.
What, should I leave thee thus distraught to die ?

Hermione.

Woe's me for my destiny !
O for the fire ! — I would hail it my friend !
O to the height of a scaur to ascend —
To crash through the trees of the mountain, to plunge

mid the sea,
To die, that the nethergloom shadows may welcome
me ! 850

Nurse.

Why fret thyself for this ? Heaven's visitation
Sooner or later cometh on all men.

Hermione.

Thou hast left me, my father, hast left, as a bark by

the tide
Left stranded and stripped of the last sea-plashing oar !
He shall slay me, shall slay ! 'Neath the roof that

knew me a bride

Shall I dwell never more !
To the feet of what statue of Gods shall the suppHant

fly?
Or crouched at a bondwoman's knees like a slave shall

I lie ? 860

42 EURIPIDES.

O that from Phthia, a bird dark-winged, I were soar-
ing,
Or were such as the pine-wrought galley, that flew
The first of the ships of earth her swift course oaring
Through the Crags dark-blue 1 865

Nurse.

My child, thy frenzy of rage I praised not then

When thou against the Trojan dame didst sin,

Nor praise the frenzy of dread that shakes thee now.

Not thus thy lord will thrust his wife away

By weak words of barbarian woman swayed. 870

In thee he wed no captive torn from Troy,

Nay, but a prince's child, and gat with thee

Rich dowry from a city of golden weal.

Nor will thy father, as thou fearest, child.

Forsake and let thee from these halls be driven. 875

Nay, pass within ; make not thyself a show

Before this house, lest thou shouldst get thee shame.

Before this palace seen of men, my child.

Chorus.

But lo, an outland stranger, alien-seeming.

With hasty steps to usward journeyeth. 880

Enter Orestes.

Orestes.

Dames of a foreign land, be these the halls
And royal palace of Achilles' son ?

Chorus.
Thou sayest : but who art thou that askest this ?

ANDROMACHE. 43

Orestes.

Agamemnon's son and Klytemnestra's I,

My name Orestes : to Zeus' oracle 885

Bound, at Dodona. Seeing I am come

To Phthia, good it seems that I enquire

Of my kinswoman, if she Hves and thrives,

Hermione of Sparta. Though she dwell

In a far land from us, she is all as dear. 890

Hermione.

O haven in a storm by shipmen seen,
Agamemnon's son, by these thy knees I pray.
Pity me of whose lot thou questionest.
Afflicted me ! With arms, as suppliant wreaths
Strong to constrain, I clasp thy very knees. 895

Orestes.

What ails thee ? Have I erred, or see L clear
Menelaus' daughter here, this household's queen ?

Hermione.

Yea, the one daughter Helen Tyndareus' child
Bare in his halls unto my sire : doubt not.

Orestes.

O Healer Phoebus, grant from woes release ! 900

What ails thee ? Art thou wronged of Gods or men ?

Hermione.

Of myself partly, partly of my lord.

In part of some God : ruin is everywhere !

44 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.

Now what affliction to a childless wife

Could hap, except as touching wedlock-right ? 905

Hermione.
That mine affliction is : thou promptest well.

Orestes.
What leman in thy stead doth thy lord love ?

Hermione.
The captive woman that was Hector's wife.

Orestes.
An ill tale, that a man should have two wives !

Hermione.
Even so it was, and I against it fought. gio

Orestes.
Didst thou for her devise a woman's vengeance ?

Hermione.
Ay, death for her and for her base-born child.

Orestes.

And slewest them ?— or some mischance hath foiled
thee?

Hermione.

Old Peleus, championing the baser cause.

ANDROMACHE.

45

Orestes.
Did none in this blood-shedding take thy part ? 915

Hermione.
My father came from Sparta even for this ; —

Orestes.
How ? — and o'ermastered by the old man's hand ?

HERiMIONE.

Nay, but by reverence ; — and forsakes me now.

Orestes.

I see it : for thy deeds thou fear'st thy lord.

Hermione.

Death is within his right. What can I plead ? 920

But I beseech thee by our Kin-god Zeus,

Help me from this land far as I may flee,

Or to my father's home. These very halls

Seem now to have a voice to hoot me forth :

The land of Phthia hates me. If my lord 925

Come home from Phoebus' oracle ere my flight,

On shamefullest charge I die, or shall be thrall

Unto his paramour, till now my slave.

" How then," shall one ask, " cam'st thou so to err ? "

'Twas pestilent women sought to me, and ruined, 930

Which spake and puffed me up with words like these :

*' Thou, wilt thou suffer yon base captive thrall

Within thine halls to share thy bridal couch ?

By Heaven's Queen, wer't in mine halls, she should not

46 EURIPIDES.

See light and reap the harvest of my bed ! " 935

And I gave ear unto these sirens' words,

These crafty, knavish, subtle gossip-mongers.

And swelled with wind of folly. Why behoved

To spy upon my lord ? I had all my need, —

Great riches ; in his palace was I queen ; 940

The children I might bear should be true-born ;

But hers, the bastards, half-thrall unto mine.

But never, never — yea, twice o'er I say it, —

Ought men of wisdom, such as have a wife,

Suffer that women visit in their halls 945

The wife : they are teachers of iniquity.

One, for her own ends, beckons on to sin ;

One, that hath fallen, craves fellov/ship in shame ;

And of sheer wantonness many tempt. And so [950

Men's homes are poisoned. Therefore guard ye well

With bolts and bars the portals of your halls ;

For nothing wholesome comes when enter in

Strange women, nay, but mischief manifold.

Chorus.

Thou hast loosed a reinless tongue against thy sisters.
In thee might one forgive it ; yet behoves 955

Woman with woman's frailty gently deal.

Orestes.

Wise was the rede of him who taught that men

Should hear the reasonings of the other side.

I, knowing what confusion vexed this house.

And of the feud 'twixt thee and Hector's wife, 960

Kept watch and waited, whether thou wouldst stay

Here, or, dismayed with dread of that spear-thrall.

Out of these halls wert minded to avoid.

ANDROMACHE.

47

I came, not by thy message drawn so much, [965

As from this house to help thee, shouldst thou grant me

Speech of thee, as thou dost. Mine wast thou once,

But liv'st with this man through thy father's baseness,

Who, ere he marched unto the coasts of Troy,

Betrothed thee mine, thereafter promised thee

To him that hath thee now, if he smote Troy. 970

Soon as to Greece returned Achilles' son.

Thy father I forgave : thy lord I prayed

To set thee free. I pleaded mine hard lot, —

The fate that haunted me, — that I might wed

From friends indeed, but scarce of stranger folk, 975

Banished as 1 am banished from mine home.

Then he with insolent scorn cast in my teeth

My mother's blood, the gory-visaged fiends. ^

And I — my pride fell with mine house's fortunes —

Was heart-wrung, heart-wrung, yet endured my lot, 980

And loth departed, of thy love bereft.

But, now thy fortune's dice have fallen awry.

And in affliction plunged dost thou despair.

Hence will I lead and give thee to thy sire ;

For mighty is kinship, and in evil days 985

There is naught better than the bond of blood.

Hermione.

My marriage — 'tis my father shall take thought

Thereof: herein decision is not mine.

But help thou me with all speed forth this house,

Lest my lord coming home prevent me yet, 990

Or Peleus learn my flight from his son's halls.

And follow in our track with chasing steeds.

1 The Furies, who haunted him after her murder.

48 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.

Fear not the greybeard's hand : yea, nowise fear

Achilles' son : his insolence-cup is full ;

Such toils of doom by this hand woven for him 995

With murder-meshes round him steadfast-staked

Are drawn : thereof I speak not ere the time ;

But, when I strike, the Delphian rock shall know.

This mother-murderer^ — if the oaths be kept

Of spear-confederates in the Delphian land — 1000

Shall prove none else shall wed thee, mine of right.

To his sorrow shall he ask redress of Phoebus

For a sire's blood ! Nor shall repentance now

Avail him, who would make the God amends.

But by his wrath, and slanders sown of me, 1005

Die shall he foully, and shall know mine hate :

For the God turns the fortune of his foes

To overthrow, nor suffereth their high thoughts.

[Exeunt Orestes and Herniione.

Chorus.

{Sir. I)
O Phoebus, who gavest to Ilium a glory [loio

Of diadem-towers on her heights, — and O Master
Of Sea-depths, whose grey-gleaming steeds o'er the
hoary
Surf-ridges speed, — to the War-god, the Waster
With spears, for what cause for a spoil did ye cast her,
Whom your own hands had fashioned, dishonoured to lie
In wretchedness, wretchedness — her that was Troy ?

{Ant. 1)
And by Simois ye yoked to the chariots fleet horses
Unnumbered, in races of blood which contended,

- i.e. The speaker ; a reference to the taunt in 1. 978.

ANDROMACHE. 49

Whose lords for no wreaths ran their terrible courses,
Where the princes of Ilium to Hades descended, [1020
Where upstreameth no more with the altar-flames
blended
The odour of incense to dream through the sky
Round the feet of Immortals — from her that was Troy !

(Sir. 2)
And Atreides hath passed ; for on him lighted slaughter
At the hands of a wife : and with murder she bought her

Death, at the hands of her child to receive it :
For a God's, O a God's hest levin-wise glared 1030
Bodings of death on her, doomings declared
In the hour Agamemnon's son forth fared
To his temple from Argos ; then thundered it o'er him ;
And he slew her, he murdered the mother that bore him !
God, Phoebus ! — ah must I, ah must I beHeve it ?

{Ant. 2)
And wherever the Hellenes were gathered was mourning
Of wives for their lost ones, the sons unreturning.

And of brides from their bowers of espousal departing
To another lord's couch : — O, not only on thee [1040
Down swooping fell anguish of misery.
Nor alone on thy loved ones ; but Hellas must be
Bowed 'neath the plague, 'neath the plague ; and on-
sweeping
Like a cloud whence the death-rain of Hades was
dripping,
Passed the scourge, o'er the Phrygians' fair harvest-
fields darting.

Enter Peleus, attended.

Peleus.

Women of Phthia, unto that 1 ask

Vol. II E.

50 EURIPIDES.

Make answer, for a rumour have I heard

That Menelaus' child hath left these halls

And fled away. In haste I come to learn 1050

If this be sooth ; for we which bide at home

Should bear the burdens of our absent friends.

Chorus.

Peleus, truth hast thou heard : 'twere for my shame

To hide the ills wherein my lot is cast.

O yea, the queen is gone — fled from these halls. 1055

Peleus.
With what fear stricken ? Tell me all the tale.

Chorus.
Dreading her lord, lest forth the home he cast her.

Peleus.
For that her murder-plot against his son ?

Chorus.
Yea : of the captive dame adread withal.

Peleus.
Forth with her father went she, or with whom ? 1060

Chorus.
Agamemnon's son hath led her from the land.

Peleus.
Yea ? — furthering what hope ? — would he wed her ?

ANDROMACHE. 51

Chorus.
Yea : and for thy son's son he plotteth death.

Peleus.
Lying in wait, or face to face in fight ?

Chorus.

With Delphians, in Loxias' holy place. 1065

Peleus.

Ah me ! grim peril this ! Away with speed
Let one depart unto the Pythian hearth,
And to our friends there tell the deeds here done,
Or ever Achilles' son be slain of foes.

Enter Messenger.

Messenger.

Woe's me, woe's me !

Bearing what tidings of mischance to thee, 1070

Ancient, and all that love my lord, I come !

Peleus.
O my prophetic soul, what ill it bodes !

Messenger.

Thy son's son, ancient Peleus, is no more,

Such dagger-thrusts hath he received of men

Of Delphi, and that stranger of Mycenae. 1075

Chorus.

Ah, what wilt do, O ancient ? — fall not thou !
Uphft thee !

52 EURIPIDES.

Peleus.

I am naught : it is my death.
Faileth my voice, my Hmbs beneath me fail.

Messenger. j

I
Hearken, if thou wouldst also avenge thy friends.

Upraise thy body, hear what deed was done. 1080

Peleus.

O Fate, how hast thou compassed me about,

The hapless, upon eld's extremest verge !

How perished he, my one son's only son ?

Tell : though it blast mine ears, fain would I hear.

1

Messenger.

When unto Phoebus' world-famed land we came, 1085

Three radiant courses of the sun we gave

To gazing, and with beauty filled our eyes.

This bred mistrust : the folk in the God's close

That dwelt, drew into knots and muttering rings, [1090

While Agamemnon's son passed through the town,

And whispered deadly hints in each man's ear : —

" See ye yon man who prowls the God's shrines through,

Shrines full of gold, the nations' treasuries.

Who on the selfsame mission comes again

As erst he came, to rifle Phoebus' shrine ? " 1095

Therefrom ill rumour surged the city through : -A

Their magistrates the halls of council thronged ;

And the God's treasure-warders, of their part,

Set guards along the temple colonnades.

But we, yet knowing nought of this, took sheep, iioo

ANDROMACHE. 53

The nurslings of the glades Parnassian,

And went and stood beside the holy hearths

With public-hosts and Pythian oracle-seers.

And one spake thus : " Prince, what request for thee

Shall we make to the God ? For what com'st thou ? "

" To Phoebus," said he, " would I make amends

For my past sin : for I required of him

Once satisfaction for my father's blood."

Then was Orestes' slander proved of might [mo

In the hoarse murmur from the throng, " He lies ! ^

He hath come for felony ! " On he passed, within

The temple-fence, before the oracle

To pray, and was in act to sacrifice : —

Then rose with swords from ambush screened by bays

A troop against him : Klytemnestra's son 11 15

Was of them, weaver of this treason-web.

Full in view standing, still to the God he prayed, —

When lo, with swords keen-whetted unawares

They stab Achilles' son, a man unarmed.

Back drew he, stricken, yet not mortally, 11 20

Draweth his sword, and, snatching helm and shield

Upon a column's nails uphung, he stood

On the altar-steps, a warrior grim to see ;

And cried to Delphi's sons, and this he asked :

" Why would ye slay me, who on holy mission 11 25

Have come ? — on what charge am I doomed to die ? "

But of the multitude that surged around

None answered word, but ever their hands hurled stones.

Then, by that hail-storm battered from all sides,

With shield outstretched he warded him therefrom, 1 130

To this, to that side turning still the targe ;

Adopting Paley's explanation of the scene.

54 EURIPIDES.

But nought availed, for in one storm the darts,
The arrows, javelins, twy-point spits outlaunched,
And slaughler-knives, came hurtling to his feet.
Dread war-dance hadst thou seen of thy son's son 1135
From darts swift-swerving ! Now they hemmed him

round
On all sides, giving him no breathing space.
Then from the altar's hearth of sacrifice
Leaping with that leap which the Trojans knew, [1140
He dashed upon them. They, like doves that spy
The hawk high-wheeling, turned their backs in flight.
Many in mingled turmoil fell, by wounds.
Or trampled of others in strait corridors.
Unhallowed clamour broke the temple-hush.
And far chffs echoed. As in a calm mid storm, 1145
My lord stood flashing in his gleaming arms.
Till from the inmost shrine there pealed a voice
Awful and thrilling, kindling that array
And battleward turning. Then Achilles' son
Fell, stabbed with a brand keen-whetted through the

side 1 1 50

By a man of Delphi, one that laid him low
With helpers many : but, when he was down.
Who did not thrust the steel, or cast the stone,
Hurhng and battering ? All his form was marred,
So goodly-moulded, by their wild-beast wounds. 11 55
Then him, beside the altar lying dead.
They cast forth from the incense-breathing shrine.
But with all speed our hands uplifted him,
And to thee bear him, to lament with wail
And weeping, ancient, and to ensepulchre. 1160

Thus he that giveth oracles to the world,
He that is judge to all men of the right,

ANDROMACHE. 55

Hath wreaked revenge upon Achilles' son, —

Yea, hath remembered, like some evil man,

An old, old feud ! How then shall he be wise ? 11 65

Enter bearers with corpse of Neoptolemus.

Chorus.

Lo, lo, where the prince, high borne on the bier,
From the Delphian land to his home draweth near !
Alas for the strong death-quelled ! Alas for thee,
stricken with eld !
Not as thou wouldest, Achilles' scion 11 70

To his home dost thou welcome, the whelp of the
lion.
In oneness of weird, in affliction drear,

Art thou linked with the dead lying here.

Peleus.

{Str. i)

Woe for the sight breaking on me.

That mine hands usher in at my door !
Ah me, 'tis my death ! ah me,
O city of Thessaly,
No child have I, — this hath undone me, —

Neither seed in mine halls any more.
Woe for me ! — whitherward turning

Shall mine eyes see the gladness of yore ? 1 180

O lips, cheek, and hands of my yearning !
O had a God but o'erthrown thee

'Neath Ilium on Simois' shore !

Chorus.

Yea, he had fallen with honour, had he died

Thus, ancient, and thy lot were happier so. 1185

56 EURIPIDES.

Peleus.

{Ani. i)
Woe's me for the deadly alliance

That hath blasted my city, mine home !
Ah my son, that the cm-se-haunted line^
Of thy bride, — unto me, unto mine
Evil-boding, — had trapped not my scion's 1190

Dear limbs in the toils of the tomb,
In the net of Hermione's flinging !

O that lightning had first dealt her doom !
And alas that the arrow, death-bringing'^
To thy sire, stirred a man, for defiance
Of a God, against Phoebus to come !

Chorus.

{Str. 2)
With a wail ringing up to the sky
In the measures of Hades' abiders will I
Uplift for my lord stricken low lamentation's outcry.

Peleus.

{Ant. 2)

With a wail to the heavens upborne 1200

I take up the strain, ah me, and I mourn

And I weep, the unblest, the ill-fated, the eld-forlorn.

Chorus.

{Str. 3)

'Tis God's doom : thine affliction God hath wrought.

1 Taking IfJLOv yeVos iu apposition to iral and tIkvov, (the
repetition enhancing the pathos,) and understanding to
Zv(Toivvfxov a-wv Acx^wv as the ill-omened nature of the
aUiance with the daughter of Helen and the niece of Kly-
temnestra, the latter of whom had literally " flung around
her lord the net of Hades."

2 See 11. 52, 53. The arrow of Paris, which slew Achilles,
was guided by Apollo.

ANDROMACHE. 57

Peleus.

O my beloved one, lone in his halls hast thou left
An old, old man of his children bereft.

Chorus.

{Str. 4)

Before thy sons shouldst thou have died, have died !

Peleus.

And shall I not rend mine hair ?

And shall I from smiting spare 12 10

Mine head, from the ruining hand ? O city, see
How Phoebus of children twain hath despoiled me !

Chorus.

{Str. 5)

Ill-starred, who hast seen and suffered evil's stress.

What life through the rest of thy days shalt thou

have ?

Peleus.

{Ant. 5)
Childless, forlorn, my woes are limitless :

I shall drain sorrow's dregs till I sink to the grave.

Chorus.

{Ant. 3)

Gods crowned with joy thy spousals all for nought.

Peleus.

Fleeted and vanished and fallen my glories are,

Far from my boasts high-soaring, O far ! 1220

Chorus.

{Ant. 4)
Lone in the lonely halls must thou abide.

58 EURIPIDES.

Peleus.

No city is mine — none now !

Down, sceptre, in dust lie thou !
Thou, Daughter of Nereus, from twihght of thy sea-hall
Shalt behold me, in ruin and wrack to the earth as I fall.

Chorus.

What ho ! what ho !
What stir in the air, what fragrance divine ?
Look yonder ! — O mark it, companions mine !
Some God through the stainless sky doth speed ;

And the car swings low
To the plains of Phthia the nurse of the steed. 1230

Thetis descends to the stage.

Thetis.

Peleus, for mine espousals' sake of old

To thee, I Thetis come from Nereus' halls.

And, first, I counsel thee, repine not thou

Overmuch for the woes that compass thee. [1235

I too, who ought to have borne no child of sorrow,

Lost him I bare to thee, my ileetfoot son,

Achilles, who in Hellas had no peer.

Now hearken while I tell my coming's cause :

Thou to the Pythian temple journey ; there

Bury thou this thy dead, Achilles' seed, 1240

Delphi's reproach, that his tomb may proclaim

His death, his murder, by Orestes' hand.

And that war-captive dame, Andromache,

In the Molossian land must find a home

In lawful wedlock joined to Helenus, 1245

ANDROMACHE. 59

With that child, who alone is left alive

Of Aiakus' line. And kings Molossian

From him, one after other long shall reign

In bliss : for, ancient, nowise thus thy line

And mine is destined to be brought to nought : 1250

No, neither Troy ; the Gods yet hold her dear,

Albeit by Pallas' eager hate she fell.

Thee too — so learn what grace comes of my couch ;

A Goddess I, whose father was a God —

Will I deliver from all mortal ills, 1255

And set thee above decay and death, a God.

Henceforth in Nereus' palace thou with me,

As God with Goddess, shalt for ever dwell.

Thence rising dry-shod from the sea, shalt thou

Behold Achilles, thy beloved son 1260

And mine, abiding in his island home

On the White Strand, within the Euxine Sea.

Now fare thou to the Delphians' God-built burg

Bearing this corpse, and hide it in the ground.

Then seek the deep cave 'neath the ancient rock 1265

Sepias ; abide there : tarry till I rise

With fifty chanting Nereids from the sea.

To lead thee thence ; for all the doom of fate

Must thou accomplish : Zeus's will is this.

Refrain thou then from grieving for the dead ; 1270

For unto all men is this lot ordained

Of heaven : from all the debt of death is due.

Peleus.

O couch-mate mine, O high-born Majesty,
Offspring of Nereus, hail thou ! Worthy thee,
Worthy thy children, are the things thou dost. 1275
Goddess, at thy command my grief shall cease.

6d EURIPIDES.

Him will I bury, and go to Pelion's glens,
Where in mine arms I clasped thy loveliest form.

[Exit Thetis.
Now, shall not whoso is prudent choose his wife,
And for his children mates, of noble strain ? 1280

And nurse no longing for an evil bride,
Not though she bring his house a regal dower ?
So should men ne'er receive ill of the Gods.

Chorus.

O the works of the Gods — in manifold forms they
reveal them :
Manifold things unhoped-for the Gods to accomplish-
ment bring. 1285
And the things that we looked for, the Gods deign not

to fulfil them ;
And the paths undiscerned of our eyes, the Gods
unseal them.

So fell this marvellous thing.

[Exeunt Omnes.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES.

ARGUMENT.

EuRYSTHEUS, king of Argos, hated Herakles all his life

through, and sought to destroy him. by thrusting on him

many and desperate labours. And when Herakles had

been caught up to Olympus from the pyre whereon he

was consumed on Mount Oeta, Eurystheus persecuted

the hero's children, and sought to slay them. Wherefore

lolaus, their father's friend and helper, fled with them.

But in whatsoever city they sought refuge, thence were

they driven ; for Eurystheus ever made search for them,

and demanded them with threats of war. So fleeing

from land to land, they came at the last to Marathon

which belongeth to Athens, and there took sanctuary at

the temple of Zeus. Thither came the folk of the land

compassionating them, and Eurystheus' herald requiring

their surrender, and the king of Athens, Theseus' son,

to hear their cause. And herein is told the tale of the

war that came of his refusal to yield them up, of the

sacrifice of a noble maiden which the Gods required as

the price of victory, of an old warrior by miracle made

young, and of the vengeance of Alkmena.

DRAMATIS PERSONiE.

loLAUs, an old man, formerly friend of Herakles.
KoPREUs, herald of Enrystheus.
Demophon, king of Athens, son of Theseus.
Makaria, daughter of Herakles.
Henchman of Hyllus, Herakles' eldest son.
Alkmena, mother of Herakles.
Servant of A Ikmena,
Messenger, a captain from the army.
EuRYSTHEUS, king of Argos.
Chorus of old men of Marathon.
Young sotis of Herakles, guards and attendants.
Scene : — At Marathon, in the forecourt of the temple of
Zeus. The great altar stands in the midst.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES.

lolaus, with Herakles' children, discovered sitting on

the altar-steps.

lOLAUS.

I HOLD it truth, — a lesson learnt long since, —

Born is the just man for his neighbours' help :

But he whose soul uncurbed speeds after gain,

To the state useless, in his dealings hard,

Is but his own friend ; — nor by hearing know it ; 5

Since I, for honour's sake and kinship's bond.

Who might in Argos peacefully have dwelt.

Bore chief share in the toils of Herakles

When he was with us. Now that in the heaven

He dwells, his babes I shelter 'neath my wings 10

Defending, who myself sore need defence.

For, soon as from the earth their sire had passed,

Us would Eurystheus at the first have slain,

But we fled. Now our city, our home, is lost,

Life only saved. We are exiled wanderers 15

From city unto city moving on.

For on our other wrongs this coping-stone

Of outrage hath Eurystheus dared to set, —

Heralds to each land where we bide he sends,

Demandeth us, and biddeth drive us forth, 20

Vol. II. F.

66 EURIPIDES.

Warning them that no weakling friend or foe

Is Argos, and himself a mighty king.

And they, discerning that my cause is weak,

These, but young children orphaned of their sire,

Bow to the strong, and drive us from their land. 25

I with his banished babes share banishment,

And with their ill plight am in evil plight.

Forsake them I dare not, lest men should say :

" See, now the children's father is no more,

lolaus wards them not, — their kinsman he ! " 30

And so, from all the soil of Hellas banned,

To Marathon and the federate land we come,

At the Gods' altars sitting suppliant.

That they may help ; for Theseus' scions twain,

Saith rumour, in the plains of this land dwell, 35

By lot their heritage, Pandion's seed.

And kin to these, for which cause have we come

This journey unto glorious Athens' bounds.

Old captains we that lead this exile-march, —

I, for these lads heart-full of troubled thought ; 40

And she, Alkmena, in yon temple folds

Her arms about the daughters of her son.

And guards : for we think shame to let young girls

Stand, a crowd's gazing-stock, on altar-steps.

Now Hyllus and his brethren elder-born 45

Seek some land for our refuge and our home,

If from this soil we be with violence thrust.

— O children, children, hither ! — seize my robes !

Yonder I see Eurystheus' herald come

Against us, him of whom we are pursued, 50

The homeless wanderers barred from every land.

Enter Kopreus.

Loathed wretch ! Now ruin seize thee and him that sent,

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES, 67

Who ofttimes to the noble sire of these

From that same mouth hast pubUshed evil bests.

KOPREUS.

Ha, deem'st thou this thy session bravely chosen, 55
This state thou hast reached thine ally ? O thou fool !
There is no man shall choose that impotence
Of thy poor strength before Eurystheus' power.
Away ! Why make this coil ? Thou must depart
To Argos, where the doom of stoning waits thee, 60

loLAUS.

Never : for the God's altar shall avail,
And the free land whereunto we have come.

KoPREUS.

Ha ! wouldst thou find some work for this mine hand ?

lOLAUS.

Nor me nor these by force shalt thou hale hence.

KOPREUS.

That shalt thou prove : ill seer thou art in this. 65

[Seizes children.
loLAUs (resisting).

This shall not be ! — no, never while I live !

KoPREUS.

Hands off ! — these will 1 hale, though thou say nay,
Accounting them Eurystheus' : his they are.

[Hurls lolaus to the ground.

68 EURIPIDES.

lOLAUS.

O ye, in Athens dwellers from of old,

Help ! Suppliants we of Zeus of the Market-stead 70

Are evil-entreated, holy wreaths defiled.

To Athens' shame and to your Gods' dishonour !

Enter Chorus.

Chorus.

What ho ! what outcry by the altar wakes ?
Now what calamity shall this reveal ?

lOLAUS.

Behold ye ! — the eld-stricken see 75

In his feebleness hurled to the ground, woe's me !

Chorus.
Of whom thus pitiably wast thou dashed down ?

lOLAUS.

This man, O strangers, sets thy Gods at naught, ^
And drags me from the altar-floor of Zeus.

Chorus.

But from what land, O ancient, hast thou come 80
To the folk of the Four Burgs' federal home ?
Were ye sped overseas by the brine-dipt oar
To our land from Euboea's craggy shore ?

1 lolaus, in his agitation, addresses himself sometimes to
the whole Chorus (as though still appealing for their aid),
and sometimes to their spokesman.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 69

lOLAUS.

Strangers, no island-dweller's life is mine ;

But from Mycenae come we to thy land. 85

Chorus.

And by what name, ancient of days, did they call
Thee, they which be fenced with Mycenae's wall ?

lOLAUS.

Herakles' henchman haply do ye know,
lolaus, for not fameless was my name.

Chorus.

I know ; long since I heard : but whose are they, 90
The fosterling lads that thine hand leadeth hither-
ward ? — say.

lOLAUS.

Strangers, the sons they are of Herakles,
Which have to thee and Athens suppliant come.

Chorus.

Say, what is your need that here ye are ?

Would ye plead your cause at the nation's bar ? 95

lOLAUS.

Given up we would not be, nor torn away
Hence, in thy Gods' despite, and sent to Argos.

KOPREUS.

Ay, but this shall not satisfy thy masters

Whose lordship o'er thee holds, who find thee here. 100

70 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

God's suppliants, stranger, must we reverence,
And not with hands of violence tear them hence,
From this place where the Holy Presence is ;
The majesty of Justice shall not suffer this.

KOPREUS.

Then from your land send these, Eurystheus' thralls,
And this mine hand shall do no violence. [105

Chorus.

Now nay, 'twere an impious thing
To cast off suppliant hands to the knees of our city
that cling !

KoPREUS.

'Tis well to keep thy foot from trouble's snare,

And in good counsel find the better part. no

Chorus.

Thou shouldst have shown respect to this free land,
And told her King, ere thy presumption tore
Therefrom the strangers in her Gods' despite.

KoPREUS.

And who is of this land and city king ?

Chorus.
Demophon, Theseus' child, a brave sire's son. 115

KoPREUS.

With him then must all strife of this dispute
Be held alone : all else is idle talk.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 71

Chorus.

Lo, hitherward himself in haste draws nigh,
And Akamas his brother, to hear thy claim.

Enter Demophon, Akamas, and attendants.

Demophon.

Since thou, the old, preventedst younger men 1 20

In rescue-rush to Zeus's altar-hearth.

Tell thou what chance hath gathered all this throng.

Chorus.

Here suppliant sit the sons of Herakles,

Who have wreathed the altar, as thou seest, O king,

And lolaus, leal henchman of their sire. 125

Demophon.
What need herein for lamentable cries ?

Chorus.

Yon man essayed to drag them from the hearth
By force ; raised outcry so, and earthward hurled
The ancient, that for ruth burst forth my tears.

Demophon.

Yet is the fashion of his vesture Greek ; 130

But deeds of a barbarian hand are these.

Man, thine it is to tell me, tarrying not.

From what land's marches hither thou hast come.

KOPREUS.

An Argive I, since this thou wouldest know.

72 EURIPIDES.

Wherefore I come, and from whom, will I tell : 135

Mycenae's king Eurystheus sends me hither

To lead these hence. Stranger, I bring with me

Just pleas in plenty, both for act and speech.

Myself an Argive would lead Argives hence.

Who find them runaways from mine own land, 140

By statutes of that land condemned to die.

For, dwellers in a state subject to none,

The right is ours to ratify her decrees.

And, though they have come to hearths of many folk.

Still on the same plea did we take our stand, 145

And ruin on his own head none dared bring.

But these came hither, haply spying folly

In thee, or staking on one desperate throw

Their venture, or to win or lose it all : —

For sure they deem not thou, if sound of wit, 150

Alone in all this Hellas they have traversed,

Wilt have compassion on their hopeless plight.

Weigh this and that : — if thou grant these a home,

Or let us hale them hence — what then thy gain ?

As touching us, these boons thou mayest win : 155

Argos' strong hand and all Eurystheus' might

Thou mayest range upon this city's side.

If thou regard their pleadings, by their whinings

Be softened, to the grapple of the spear

The matter cometh. Never think that we 160

Will yield this strife but by the sword's award.

What canst thou plead ? Of what lands art thou

robbed.
That with Tirynthian Argives thou wouldst war ? —
What aUies so defending ? — In whose cause
Shall those thou buriest fall ? Ill fame were thine 165
With thine Athenians, if for yon old man.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 73

That sepulchre, — mere naught, as men might say, —
And these boys, in deep waters thou wilt sink.
What is thy best plea ? Hope for days to come ?
Scant satisfaction for the present this ! 1 70

For against Argos these, armed, grown to man.
Should make but feeble stand, — if haply this
Uplift thine heart ; — and long years lie between.
Wherein ye may be ruined. Nay, heed me :
Give naught, but suffer me to take mine own ; 175

So gain Mycenae : — not, as your wont is.
Thus fare, that, when 'tis yours to choose for friend
The stronger cause, ye take the weaker side.

Chorus.

Who can give judgment, who grasp arguments,

Ere from both sides he clearly learn their pleas ? 180

lOLAUS.

King, this advantage have I in your land,

I am free to speak and in my turn to hear ;

None, as from other lands, will first expel me.

We and this man have nought in common now ;

We have nought to do with Argos any more 185

Since that decree : we are exiled from her soil.

What right hath he to hale us, whom they banished.

As we were burghers of Mycenae yet ?

Aliens we are : — or from all Hellas banned

Are men whom Argos exiles ? — -claim ye this ? igo

Sooth, not from Athens : she shall drive not forth,

For fear of Argives, sons of Herakles.

She is no Trachis, no Achaian burg,i

I The Heracleidae had first fled to Trachis, a town in
Thessaly.

74 EURIPIDES.

As that whence thou didst drive these — not of right,

But, even as now, by vaunting Argos' power, — 195

These, suppHant at the altar as they sat !

If this shall be, if she but ratify

Thine bests, free Athens then no more 1 know.

Nay, her sons' nature know I, know their mood:

They will die sooner ; for in brave men's eyes 200

The honour that fears shame is more than life.

Suffice for Athens this ; for over-praise

Is odious : yea, myself have oftentimes.

Praised above measure, been but galled thereby.

But that thou canst not choose but save these boys 205

I would show thee, who rulest o'er this land.

Pittheus was Pelops' son : of Pittheus sprang

Aithra ; of her was thy sire Theseus born.

Again, the lineage of these lads I trace :

Zeus' and Alkmena's son was Herakles : 210

She, child of Pelops' daughter : cousins then

Shall be thy father and the sire of these.

So their near kinsman art thou, Demophon :

But what requital — ties of blood apart —

Thou owest to these lads, I tell thee : — once 215

Shield-bearer to their sire, I sailed with him

To win for Theseus that Belt slaughter-fraught ;i

And from black gulfs of Hades he brought up

Thy sire : all Hellas witnesseth to this.

This to requite, one boon they crave of thee, — 220

Not to be given up, nor torn by force

From thy Gods' fanes, and banished from thy land ;

For this were thy shame, Athens' bane withal,

That homeless suppliants, kinsmen, — ah, their woes !

1 The belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, the
winning of which cost many lives.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 75

Look on them, look ! — be dragged away by force. 225
O, I beseech — I lay the wreath-spell on thee —
By thine hands and thine head, set not at naught
Herakles' sons, who hast them in thine hands.
Prove thee to these true kinsman, prove thee friend,
Their father, brother, lord — better all these,i 230

Than into hands of Argive men to fall !

Chorus.

I pity these in their affliction, king.

High birth by fortune crushed I now behold

As ne'er before : born of a noble sire

Are these, yet suffer woes unmerited. 235

Demophon.

Three influences, that meet in one, constrain me,

lolaus, not to thrust these from my land :

The chiefest, Zeus, upon whose altar thou

Art sitting with these nestlings compassed round ;

Then, kinship, and the debt of old, that these 240

Should for their sire's sake fare well at mine hands ;

Third, dread of shame, — this must my soul regard :

For if I let this altar be despoiled

By alien force, I shall be held to dwell

In no free land, but cowed by fear of Argos 245

To yield up suppliants : — hanging were not worse !

I would that thou hadst come in happier plight ;

Yet, even so, fear not that any man

Shall from this altar tear thee with these boys.

1 The special reference being to the last. They had
better become even vassals of Athens than victims of Argos.

76 EURIPIDES.

Thou, {to the herald) go to Argos ; tell Eurystheus
this : 250

And, if he implead these strangers in our courts,
He shall have right. These shalt thou hale hence
never.

KOPREUS.

Not if my cause be just, my plea prevail ?

Demophon.
Just ? — to hale hence by force the suppliant ?

KoPREUS.

Then mine the shame : no harm befalleth thee.^ 255

Demophon.
My shame too, if I let thee drag these hence.

Kopreus.
Banish them thou : then I will lead them thence.

Demophon.
O born a fool, who wouldst outwit the God !

Kopreus.
So hither felons must for refuge flee !

Demophon.
The God's house gives to all men sanctuary. 260

^ Al. ovKovv .... dAAa : "No shame to me, but thine
own hurt is this." i.e., this resistance on your part, which,
while it will not (as the event will prove) disgrace me, will
turn to your own hurt.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 77

KOPREUS.

Haply not so shall think Mycenae's folk.

Demophon.
Am I not master then in mine own land ?

KoPREUS.

Not unto Argos' hurt, — so thou be wise.

Demophon.

The hurt be yours, so I ilout not the Gods.

Kopreus.

I would not thou with Argos shouldst have war. 265

Demophon.

I too : yet will I not abandon these.

Kopreus.

Yet will I take mine own and hale them hence.

Demophon.

Not lightly shalt thou win to Argos back.

Kopreus.

That will I now try, and be certified.

[Attempts to seize them.

Demophon [with threatening gesture'^.

Touch these, and thou shalt rue, and that right soon. 270

78 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.
Dare not to strike a herald, for heaven's sake !

Demophon.
That will I, if the herald learn not wisdom.

Chorus.

[To Herald] Depart thou : — touch thou not this man,
O king.

KOPREUS.

I go ; for feeble fight one hand may make.

But I will hither come with brazen mail 275

And spears of Argos' war : warriors untold

Await me ; and Eurystheus' self, our king,

Their chief, expecting what shall come from hence,

Waits on the marches of Alkathous.^ i

He shall flash forth, being told thine insolence, 280 ''

On thee, thy folk, this land, and all her fruits.

For all this warrior youth were ours for nought

In Argos, if we avenge us not on thee.

Demophon.

Begone ! I fear not that thine Argos, I !
'Twas not for thee to shame me and to drag 285

These hence by force. This city which I hold i

Is not to Argives subject : she is free.

[Exit Kopreus. ■

1 i.e. in Megara, of which Alkathous had shortly before
been king.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 79

Chorus.

It is time to prepare, ere the Argive array

O'er our marches on-sweepeth ;
For Mycenae's war-spirit more hot for the fray 290

For these tidings upleapeth.
Yea, and after his kind will yon herald be swelling
His wrongs — such aye double a tale in the telling : —
In the ears of his lords, think ye, how will he cry
On the foulness of outrage " that brought him this day
Unto death well-nigh ! "

lOLAUS.

No fairer honour-guerdon may sons win

Than this, to spring from noble sires and good.

And so wed noble wives. Who, passion's thrall, [300

Links him with base folk, ne'er shall have my praise,

Who, for his lust's sake, stamps his seed with shame.

For noble birth stands in the evil day

Better than base blood. We, to deepest depths

Of evil fallen, yet have found us friends

And kin in these : in all the peopled breadth 305

Of Hellas these alone have championed us.

Give, children, unto these the right hand give,

And to the children ye ; draw near to them.

Boys, we have put our friends unto the test : —

If home-return shall ever dawn for you, 310

And your sires' halls and honours ye inherit,

Saviours and friends account them evermore,

And never against their land lift hostile spear,

Remembering this, but hold- them of all states

Most dear. They are worthy of your reverence, 315

Who have ta'en our burden on them, enmity

8o EURIPIDES.

Of that great land, that folk Pelasgian.^

Beggars they saw us, homeless : for all this

They gave not up nor chased us from their land.

And I, in life, — in death, when death shall come, 320

With high laud will extol thee, good my lord,

At Theseus' side ; and this shall make him glad,

My tale how thou didst welcome, didst defend

Herakles' sons, how nobly Hellas through

Thou guard'st thy sire's renown : thy father's son 325

Shames not the noble line wherefrom he sprang.

Few such there be : amid a thousand, one

Thou shouldst find undegenerate from his sire.

Chorus.

Ever of old she chooseth, this our land,
To help the helpless ones in justice' cause. 330

Wherefore unnumbered toils for friends she hath borne.
Now see I this new struggle looming nigh.

Demophon.

Well said of thee ; and sure am I that these

Shall so prove ; unforgot shall be our boon.

Now will I muster for the war my folk, 335

And marshal, that a goodly band may greet

Mycenae's host. Scouts first will I send forth

To meet it, lest unwares it fall on me ;

For swift the Argives throng to the gathering-cry.

Seers will I bring, and sacrifice. Thou, leave 340

Zeus' hearth, and enter with the boys mine halls :

1 So Paley. But according to Beck,

" Who have chosen to have for foes that mighty land,
That folk Pelasgian, in the stead of us."

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 8i

Therein be they which, though I be afar,

Shall care for thee. Pass, ancient, to mine halls.

lOLAUS.

I will not leave the altar. Let us sit,

Abiding Athens' triumph, suppliant here. 345

And, when thou hast brought this strife to glorious end.

Then will we enter. Champion-gods have we

Not weaker than the Argive Gods, O king.

Though Hera, bride of Zeus, before them go.

Ours is Athena ; and this tells, say I, 350

For triumph, to have gotten mightier Gods :

For Pallas never shall brook overthrow.

[Exit Demophon.

Chorus.

{Str.)
Ay, vaunt as thou wilt, yet uncaring

Will we swerve none the more from the right,
O thou stranger from Argolis faring

To Athens, thou shalt not affright
Our souls by thy bluster high-swelling.

Not yet such dishonour be done
To the land great and fair beyond telling !
Fools — thou and thy despot-lord dwelling 360

In Argos, this Sthenelus' son !

Thou who com'st to a city no lesser
Than Argos, essaying to seize —

And thou alien, O violent oppressor ! —
The suppliants that cling to her knees,

The homeless that cry from her altars !
And thou hast not respect to our king,

And with justice thy false tongue palters : —

Vol. II.

{Ant.)

82 EURIPIDES.

Who, except from truth's pathway he falters,

But shall count it an infamous thing ? 370

{Epode)

Peace love I well, but I warn thee,
O tyrant, O treacherous-souled.
Though thou march to the gates of our hold.

Not the crown of thine hopes shall adorn thee.
Not for thine hand the war-spear alone
Nor the brass on the buckler hath shone !

O thou that in battle delightest,

Trouble not, trouble not with thy spear

The burg that the Graces make brightest

Of cities : — dread thou and forbear. 380

Re-enter Demophon.

lOLAUS.

My son, why com'st thou with care-clouded eyes ?

Tellest thou evil tidings of the foe ?

Tarry they ? — are they on us ? — what hast heard ?

No empty promise was yon herald's threat.

Their captain, aye triumphant heretofore, 385

Shall march, I know, with heart uplifted high.

Against our Athens. Notwithstanding Zeus

Chastiseth overweening arrogance.

Demophon.

They are come, the Argive host and king Eurystheus.

Myself beheld them ; for behoves the man, 390

Whoso makes claim to know good generalship.

To see — nor that with eyes of scouts — his foes.

But to the plains not yet hath he marched down

His bands, but, couched upon the rocky brow,

W' atcheth — I but make guess of that I tell thee — 395

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 83

Where without conflict to push on his host,

And in the land's heart camp him safety-girt.

Yet all my preparations well are laid :

Athens is all in arms, the victims ready

Stand for the Gods to whom they must be slain. 400

By seers the city is filled with sacrifice

For the foes' rout and saving of the state.

All prophecy-chanters have I caused to meet,

Into old public oracles have searched.

And secret, for salvation of this land. 405

And, mid their manifold diversities,

In one thing glares the sense of all the same : —

They bid me to Demeter's Daughter slay

A maiden of a high-born father sprung.

Full am I, as thou seest, of good will 410

To you : yet neither will I slay my child,

Nor force thereto another of my folk :

And of his own will who hath heart so hard

As from his hands to yield a most dear child ?

Now gatherings may'st thou see of angry mood, 415

Where some say, right it is to render help

To suppliant strangers, some cry out upon

My folly : — yea, and if I do this thing,

Even this day is civil war afoot.

See thou to this then : help me find a way 420

Whereby yourselves and Athens shall be saved.

And I shall not be of my folk reproached.

For mine is no barbarian despot's sway :

Only for fair deeds win I guerdon fair.

Chorus.

How ? — do the Gods forbid that Athens help 425

The stranger, though she yearn with eager will ?

84 EURIPIDES.

lOLAUS.

0 children, we are like to shipmen, who,
Escaped the madding fury of the storm,
And now in act to grasp the land, have yet

By blasts been driven from shore to sea again. 430

Even so are we from this land thrust away,
When, as men saved, even now we touched the strand.
Ah me, why didst thou cheer me, wretched hope,
Erst, when thy mind was not to crown thy boon ?
The king I cannot blame, who will not slay 435

His people's daughters : yea, I am content
With Athens' dealings with us : if it please
Gods that I fare thus, gratitude dies not.
Ah boys, for you I know not what to do !
Whitherward flee ? — what Gods rest unimplored ? 440
What refuge upon earth have we not sought ?
Die shall we, children, yielded up to foes.

1 reck not of myself, if I must die, —

Except that o'er my death yon foes shall gloat :

But for you, babes, I weep in utter ruth, 445

And for your sire's grey mother, even Alkmena.

O lady, hapless in thy length of days !

And hapless I, who have greatly toiled in vain !

Doomed were we, doomed into a foeman's hands

To fall, and die in shame and agony ! 450

King, help me ! — wouldst know how ? — not every hope

Of their deliverance hath fled my soul : —

Me to the Argives yield up in their stead.

So be unperilled thou, the lads be saved.

No right have I to love life : let it go ! 455

Me would Eurystheus most rejoice to seize, —

Herakles' ally, me, — and evil-entreat ;

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 85

For churl he is. Let wise men pray to strive
With wise men, not with graceless arrogance.
So, if one fall, he stoops to a chivalrous foe. 460

Chorus.

O ancient, upon Athens cast not blame !
Haply 'twere false, ^ yet foul reproach were this
That we abandoned stranger-suppliants.

Demophon.

Noble thine offer : yet it cannot be.

Not craving thee doth this king hither march : 465

For of what profit to Eurystheus were

An old man's death ? Nay, these he lusts to slay.

For dangerous to foes are high-born youths

Growing to man, and brooding on sires' wrongs i^

And all this he foresees, he needs must so. 470

If any rede thou knowest more than this

In season, set it forth : I am desperate.

Hearing those oracles, and full of fear.

Enter Makaria from the temple.

Makaria.

Strangers, impute not for my coming forth

Boldness to me ; this is my first request ; 475

Since for a woman silence and discretion

Be fairest, and still tarrying in the home.

But, lolaus, I heard thy moans, and came, —

Though I be not ordained mine house's head,

1 The Aldine Kep8o<s has no MS. authority (Paley).
* Cf. Andromache, 1. 521.

86 EURIPIDES.

Yet in some sort it fits me, for I love 480

These brethren more than all : yea, mine own fate
Fain would I learn, — lest to the former ills
Some new pang added may torment thy soul.

lOLAUS.

Daughter, long since have I had righteous cause

To praise thee chiefliest of Herakles' seed. 485

Our house, that seemed but now to prosper well,

Once more hath fallen into desperate case.

For oracle-chanters, saith this king, proclaim

That he must bid to slay nor bull nor calf.

But a maid, daughter of a high-born sire, 490

If we, if Athens, must not cease to be.

This then is our despair : the king refuseth

To slay his own or any other's child.

And saith to me, — albeit not in words, —

Except we find for this some remedy, 495

We must needs forth and seek another land ;

But his own land he cannot choose but save.

Makaria.

On these terms hangeth our deliverance ?

lOLAUS.

On these, — if in all else our fortune speed.

Makaria.

Then dread no more the Argive foemen's spear. 500
Myself — I wait no bidding, ancient— am
Ready to die, and yield me to be slain.
What can we say, if Athens count it meet
To brave a mighty peril for our sake.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 87

And we to others pass the struggle on, 505

And flee death, when that way dehverance lies ?

Never ! — a scoffing to us this should be,

To sit and moan on, suppliant to their Gods,

And — born of that sire of whose loins we sprang —

To show us craven ! Is this like the brave ? 510

Better, forsooth, this town — which God forbid ! —

Were ta'en, that into hands of foes I fell,

And suffered — I, from hero-father sprung —

Horrors, and looked on Hades none the less !

Or, banished, shall I wander from this land, 515

And not be utterly shamed, if one should say,

" Wherefore come hither with your suppliant boughs,

O ye that so love life ?— hence from our land !

For we to cravens will not render help ? "

Nay, and not even if all these were slain 520

And I saved, have I hope of happy days ; — -

Many, so tempted, have betrayed their friends ; —

For who would stoop to take a friendless girl

To wife, or care to raise up seed of me ?

Better to die than light on such a doom 525

Unworthy ! Haply this might well beseem

Another maid who hath not my renown.

Lead on to where this body needs must die :

Wreathe me, begin the rite, if this seem good.

Vanquish your foes ; for ready is this life, 530

Willing, ungrudging. Yea, I pledge me now

For these my brothers' sake, and mine, to die.

For treasure-trove most fair, by loving not

Life, have I found, — with glory to quit life.

Chorus.

What shall I say, who hear this maid's high words 535

EURIPIDES.

Consenting for her brethren's sake to die ?
What man could utter nobler words than these,
Or who do nobler deed henceforth for ever ?

lOLAUS.

0 child, thine heart is of none other sire —

Thou art his own seed, of that godlike soul, 540

Herakles, sprung ! — No shame, no shame, is mine

For these thy words, but grief for this hard lot.

Yet how 'twere done more justly will I tell :

Hither be all this maiden's sisters called ;

Then for her house let whom the lot dooms die : 545

But that thou die without lot is not just.

Makaria.

1 will not perish by the lot's doom, I ;

For then is no free grace : thou, name it not.

But if ye will accept me, and consent

To take an eager victim, willingly 550

I give my life for these, nowise constrained.

lOLAUS.

Ah, marvellous one !

Nobler thy latter speech is than thy first.

Perfect was that, but thou o'erpassest now

Courage with courage, word with noble word ! 555

Yet, daughter, thee I bid not, nor forbid

To die : — thy brethren dost thou, dying, help.

Makaria.

Thou dost bid — wisely. Fear not thou to take
Guilt-stain of me : but let me die — die free.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 89

Come with me, ancient : in thine arms to diei 560

I ask. Be near me ; veil my corse with robes,
Since to the horror of the knife I pass —
If I be of the sire that I boast mine.

lOLAUS.

I cannot stand and look upon thy doom.

Makaria.

At least ask thou the king that I may breathe 565

My last breath not in men's but women's hands.

Demophon.

This shall be, hapless among maidens : shame
Were mine to grace thee not with honour meet,
For causes manifold : — for thy great heart,
For justice' sake, and for that thou art brave 570

Above all women that mine eyes have seen.
Wouldst thou say aught to these, or this grey sire,
Speak thy last word, or ever thou depart. [Exit.

Makaria.

Farewell, old sire, farewell, and teach, O teach
These boys to be like thee, in all things wise 575

As thou art — no whit more : that shall suffice.
And strive from death to save them, loyal soul :
Thy children are we, fostered by thine hands.

1 Some explain IvOavelv, " die in, i.e., by, thine hands."
But (i), lolaus, in 1. 564, would surely have made some
reference to such a proposal ; (2), in that case, Iv, in 1. 566,
should mean " by women's hands," which is absurd.

go EURIPIDES.

Thou seest how my bloom of spousal-tide

I yield up in the stead of these to die. 580

And ye, O band of brethren at my side,

Blessings on you ! May all be yours, for which

The cleaving of mine heart shall pay the price. M

This old man, and the grey queen therewithin,

Alkmena, my sire's mother, honour ye, 585

And these our hosts. If there be found of heaven

For you release from toils, and home-return.

Remember then your saviour's burial due, —

Fair burial, as is just. I have failed you nought,

Have stood your champion, for mine house have died.

My treasure this shall be, for babes unborn, [590

Spousals foregone ; — if in the grave aught be :

But ah that nought might be ! — for if there too

We mortals who must die shall yet have cares,

I know not whither one shall turn ; since death 595

For sorrows is accounted chiefest balm.

lOLAUS.

O thou who for high courage hast no peer.

Above all women, know, in life, in death.

Most chiefest honour shalt thou have of us.

Farewell : for awe I dare not curse the Goddess, 600

Demeter's child, to whom thy life is sealed.

[Exit Makaria. lolaus sinks to the ground.
O boys, we are undone ! — faint fail my limbs
For anguish ! Take, upbear me to a seat
Hereby, and muffle with these robes, my sons.
For neither can I joy in these deeds done, 605

Nor might we live, the oracle unfulfilled.
This is calamity, that were deeper ruin.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 91

Chorus.

(Str.)

Never man hath been blessed save by God's dispen-
sation, nor bowed under sorrow : —
Lo, this do I cry : —
Nor the same house treads evermore in prosperity's
ways : 610

But the fate of to-day is dogged by the feet of the fate
of to-morrow

Ever treading anigh ;
And him that was highly exalted it comes to abase,
And him that was nothing accounted it setteth on
high.i
Ye may flee not your doom, nor repel, though the
buckler of wisdom ye borrow.
And whoso essayeth hath vain toil endlessly.

(Ant.)
Ah, cast thee not down, but endure heaven's stroke,
nor thy spirit surrender

Unto anguished despair. 620

She hath won her a portion in death that the world
shall praise,
Who hath out of her agony risen, her brethren's, our
Athens' defender :

And a crown shall she wear
Of renown that the worship of men on her brows

shall place :
For through tangle of trouble doth virtue unfaltering
fare.
Of her sire is it worthily done, of her line's heroic
splendour.
In thine homage to noble death mine heart hath share.

1 Reading drcrav vice dXyJTav.

92 EURIPIDES.

Enter Henchman of Hyllus.

Henchman.

Hail, children ! Where stay ancient lolaus 630

And your sire's mother from their session here ?

lOLAUS.

Here am I — such as my poor presence is.

Henchman.

Why dost thou He thus ? Why these down-drooped
eyes ?

lOLAUS.

A sorrow of this house is come to oppress me.

Henchman.
Yet now upraise thyself : uphft thine head. 635

lOLAUS.

Old am I, and my strength is utter naught.

Henchman.
But bringing tidings of great joy I come.

lOLAUS.

Who art thou ? — where have I met thee unremembered ?

Henchman.
I am Hyllus' vassal. Look, dost know me not ?

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 93

lOLAUS.

Friend, com'st thou our deliverer from bane ? 640

Henchman.
Yea : therewithal thou art fortunate this day.

lOLAUS.

Alkmena, mother of a hero-son,
Come forth, give ear to these most welcome words ;
For travailing long in spirit hast thou fainted [645

Lest these^ which now are come should ne'er return.

Enter Alkmena frotn the temple.

Alkmena.

What means this outcry filling all the house ?

How, hath a herald from their Argos come

Again to outrage thee ? My strength is weakness ;

Yet of this thing, O stranger, be assured,

Never, while I live, shalt thou hale these hence. 650

Else be I counted mother never more

Of Herakles ! If thou lay hand on these,

With two old foes thou shalt inglorious strive.

Iolaus.

Fear not, grey queen, nor quake : no herald he

From Argos cometh bearing hests of foes. 655

Alkmena.

Why then didst raise a cry in-ushering fear ?

^ Hyllus and the other grown-up sons of Herakles.

94 EURIPIDES.

lOLAUS.

That thou before this temple might'st draw nigh.

Alkmena.
This was not in my thought : — now who is this ?

lOLAUS.

He bringeth tidings. Thy son's son is here.

Alkmena.

Hail also thou for this thine heralding ! 660

But wherefore absent, if he hath set foot
In this land ? — where ? — what hap hath hindered him
From coming with thee to make glad mine heart ?

Henchman.

The host he hath brought he camps, and marshals it.

Alkmena.

Such matter appertaineth not to me. ITurns to go.] 665

loLAUS.

Now nay — though my part be to enquire thereof.

Henchman.
What wouldst thou know concerning things achieved ?

lOLAUS.

How great a host of allies hath he brought ?

Henchman.
Many : their tale I cannot tell save thus.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 95

lOLAUS.

All this, I trow, the chiefs Athenian know ? 670

Henchman.
They know : yea, on their left he stands arrayed.

lOLAUS.

Ha, is the host already armed for fight ?

Henchman.
Yea, and the victims are brought nigh the ranks.

lOLAUS.

And distant how far is the Argive spear ?

Henchman.
So that thou plainly may'st discern their chief. 675

lOLAUS.

What doth he ? — marshals he the foemen's lines ?

Henchman.

So made we guess : not plainly could we hear.
But I must go : I would not that without me,
Through fault of mine, my lords should clash with foes.

lOLAUS.

And I with thee : my purpose is as thine, — 680

As meet is, — to be there and help my friends.

Henchman.

Nay, nowise worthy thee were idle talk !

96 EURIPIDES.

lOLAUS.

Unworthy it were to help not friends in fight.

Henchman.
The glance can deal no wound, if hand strike not.

lOLAUS.

How ? Cannot I withal smite through a shield ? 685

Henchman,
Smite ? — yea, but thou thyself ere then mightst fall.

lOLAUS.

There is no foe shall dare to meet mine eye.

Henchman.
Thou hast not, good my lord, thine olden strength.

lOLAUS.

Yet foes by tale not fewer will I fight.

Henchman.
Scant weight into thy friends' scale wilt thou cast. 690

Iolaus.
Hinder me not. I am wrought up for the deed.

Henchman.
For deeds no power thou hast ; — hast will, perchance.

Iolaus.
Talk as thou wilt, so I bide not behind.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 97

Henchman.
With mailed men how shalt thou unarmed appear ?

lOLAUS.

There hang within yon fane arms battle- won. 695

These will I use, and, if I live, restore ; —
The God will not require them of the slain.
Pass thou within, and from the nails take down,
And bring with speed to me, that warrior-gear.

\_Exit Henchman.
Shameful it is — this loitering at home, 700

That some should fight, some, craven souls, hang
back !

Chorus.

Not yet may the years quell thy spirit,

Young in heart, though thy strength be no more !
Why toil to thine hurt but in vain ?
Small help of thee Athens should gain. 705

Let thine eld yet be wise, and refrain
From things hopeless : thou canst not inherit
Yet again the lost prowess of yore.

Alkmp:na.

Art thou beside thyself ? — what, meanest thou

To leave me and my children thus forlorn ? 710

lOLAUS.

Yea, men must fight. For these must thou take
thought.

Alkmena.

But, if thou perish, how shall I be saved ?

Vol. H. H.

98 EURIPIDES.

lOLAUS.

Thy son's sons which are left shall care for thee.

Alkmena.
But if — which God forbid — aught hap to them ?

lOLAUS.

Our hosts shall not forsake thee. Fear not thou. 715

Alkmena.
Mine heart's last stay ! — none other have I left.

lOLAUS.

Nay, Zeus, I know, remembereth thy griefs.

Alkmena.

Ah ! {sighs heavily.)

Never of me shall ill be said of Zeus ;
But is he just to me-ward ? — Himself knows !

[Retires within temple.

Re-enter Henchman.

Henchman.

Lo, here thou seest a warrior's gear complete : 720

Make all speed to encase in these thy frame.

The fight is nigh, and most the War-god loathes

Loiterers. If thou fear the armour's weight,

Go mailless now, and lap thee mid the ranks

In this array : till then will I bear all. 725

Iolaus.

Well hast thou said : yet ready to mine hand

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. gg

Bring on the arms : set in mine hand a spear :
Bear up my left arm, ordering my steps.

Henchman.
How, lead as a little child the man-at-arms !

lOLAUS.

For the omen's sake unstumbling must I go. 730

Henchman.
Would thou wert strong to do, as thou art fain !

lOLAUS.

On ! — woe, if I be laggard for the fray !

Henchman.
'Tis thou art slow, not I, who dream'st performance.

lOLAUS.

Seest thou not how onward speed my limbs ?

Henchman.
More thine imagining see I than thy speed. 735

Iolaus.
Thou shalt not say so when thou seest me there —

Henchman.
Achieving what ? — I fain would see thy triumph !

Iolaus.
Smiting some foeman, yea, clear through the shield.

lOo EURIPIDES.

Henchman.
If we win ever thither, — this I doubt.

loLAUS.

Would, O mine arm, that, as I call to mind 740

Thy young strength, when thou didst with Herakles

Smite Sparta, such a helper unto me

Thou wouldst become ! Soon would I turn to rout

Eurystheus — craven he to abide the spear !

With high estate is this delusion linked, 745

Repute for courage high : for still we deem

That he who prospereth knoweth all things well.

[^Exeunt.
Chorus.

{Str. i)
Earth ! — Moon, which reign'st the livelong night ! —

O glorious radiancy
Of Him who giveth mortals light, 750

Flash tidings unto me !
Shout triumph up through heaven's expansion,

Up to the throne of all men's lord,
Up to grey-eyed Athena's mansion !
I for my land am battle-dight.
Arrayed for hearth and home to fight,

To shear through danger with the sword,
For right of sanctuary.

(Ant. i)
Dread peril, that Mycenae-town —

The mighty burg, whose hand 760

The wide world through hath spear-renown, —

Nurse wrath against my land !
Yet shame, O shame, were thine, my city,

If we must yield to Argos' hest

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. lai

Suppliants, — if fear must cast out pity ! . . . .
Zeus champions me ; I tread fear down :
Zeus' favour is my right, my crown :
In mine esteem above the Blest
Never shall mortals stand,

{Str. 2)
But, O Queen, — for our soil, for our city is thine, 770

And to thee be we given —
O our mother, our Mistress, O Warder Divine,

Yon despiser of heaven,
Who from Argos brings storm -rush of spearmen

upon me.
Chase afar ! — no such guerdon hath righteousness
won me

As from home to be driven !

{Ant. 2)
For the sacrifice-homage is rendered thee aye
When the month waneth, bringing
The day when young voices to thee chant the lay,

When the dancers are singing, 780

When the wind-haunted hill with the beat of the

glancing
White feet of fair girls through the night-season
dancing,

And with glad cries, is ringing,

Alkmena comes again out of the temple. Enter Servant.

Servant.

Mistress, I bring thee tidings passing brief
To hear, and passing fair for me to tell. 785

Our foes are smitten : trophies now are reared
Hung with war-harness of our enemies.

102 EURIPIDES.

Alkmena.

Dear friend, this day hath wrought thy severance
From bondage, for the tidings thou hast brought.
Yet from one ill not yet thou freest me — 790

Fear touching those I love, if yet they live.

Servant.
They live, in all the host most high-renowned.

Alkmena.
The old man lolaus — lives he yet ?

Servant. j

Yea, and by Heaven's help hath done gloriously.

Alkmena.
What is it ? — hath he wrought some knightly deed ? 795

Servant.
He from an old man hath become a youth.

Alkmena.

Marvels thou speakest : yet I pray thee tell
First how the fight was victory for our friends.

Servant.

One speech of mine shall set forth all to thee.

When host against host we had ranged the array 800

Of men-at arms far-stretching face to face,

Then from his chariot Hyllus lighted down.

And midway stood between the spearmen-lines,

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 103

And cried, " O captain of the host, who hast come

From Argos, wherefore spare we not this land ? 805

Lo, if thou rob Mycenae of one man.

Nought shalt thou hurt her : — come now, man to man

Fight thou with me : so, slaying, lead away

Herakles' sons ; or, falling, leave to me

My father's honour and halls to have and hold." 810

" Yea ! " the host shouted, counting this well said

For valour and for rest from battle-toil :

Yet he, unshamed for them that heard the challenge,

And his own cowardice, war-chief though he were,

Dared not draw nigh the essay of valour's spear, 815

But was sheer craven. And this dastard wretch

Came to enslave the sons of Herakles !

So to the ranks again went Hyilus back :

And the priests, knowing now that end of strife

Should not by clash of champion shields be attained.

Did sacrifice, nor tarried, but straightway [S20

Spilled from the victims' throats the auspicious blood. ^

Then mounted these their cars : their shield-rims those

Before their bodies cast. Then Athens' king

Cried to his host, as high-born chieftain should : 825

" Countrymen, now must each one play the man

1 The reading (/J/aoretW) is doubtful ; for (i), there was
no question of more than one human victim ; (2), so passing
a reference to such a sacrifice is most unlikely ; (3), the king
had promised that women should attend Makaria at her
death. This, he must have known, could not be done on
the field of battle ; nor was there any reason wh}' the sacri-
fice should not be performed in a temple. Hence we may
conclude that the victims here referred to were those
regularly slain with a view to ascertain if the omens were
favourable for immediate onset : this seems to be indicated
by the peculiar (yet in such connection appropriate) word
ovpiov.

I04 EURIPIDES.

For the land that hath borne and nurtured him !"

The while that other prayed his battle-aid

To brook not shame to Argos and Mycenae.

But when the Tuscan trumpet gave the sign 830

High-shrilling, and the war-hosts clashed in fight,

How mighty a crash of bucklers thundered then —

Think'st thou ? — What multitudinous groan and shriek !

Now first the onset of the Argive spear

Burst through our ranks : then gave they back again.

Anon foot stood in grapple locked with foot, [835

Man fronting man, hard- wrestling in the fray :

Fast, fast they fell. Cheers ever answered cheers —

" Dwellers in Athens ! " — " Tillers of the land

Of Argos ! " — " from dishonour save your town ! " 840

With uttermost endeavour and strong strain

Scarce turned we unto flight the Argive spear.

Thereat old lolaus, marking where

Hyllus charged on, with outstretched hand besought

That he would set him on a courser-car. 845

Then the reins grasped he, then the steeds he sped

After Eurystheus. All the rest I tell

From others' lips : the former things I saw.

For, as he passed beyond Pallene's Hill

Sacred to Pallas, spying Eurystheus' car, 850

He prayed to Zeus and Htbe, for one day

To be made young, and wreak the vengeance due

On foes : — now shalt thou hear a miracle.

For two stars rested on the chariot-yoke.

And into gloom of shadow threw the car ; 855

And these, diviners say, were thy great son

And Hebe : — then from out that murky gloom

He flashed — a youth, with mighty-moulded arms !

And glorious lolaus overtook

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 105

By the Skironian Rocks Eurystheus' car. 860

He hath bound his hands with gyves, and hath returned

Bringing the crown of victory, that chief

So prosperous once : but by his fate this day

Clear warning to all men he publisheth

To envy not the seeming-fortunate, ere 865

He die, since fortune dureth but a day.

Chorus.

O Victory-wafter Zeus, now is it mine
To see a day from dark fear disenthralled !

Alkmena.

Zeus, late on mine affliction hast thou looked ;

Yet thank I thee for all that thou hast wrought. 870

Now know I of a surety that my son

Dwelleth with Gods : — ere this I thought not so.

O children, now, yea now from trouble free,

And from Eurystheus, doomed to a dastard's death,

Free shall ye be, shall see your father's city, 875

And tread the lot of your inheritance,

And sacrifice to your fathers' Gods, from whom

Banned ye have known a wretched homeless life.

But for what veiled wise purpose lolaus

Hath spared Eurystheus, that he slew him not, 880

Tell : for in our sight nothing wise is this

To capture foes, and not requite their wrong.

Servant.

Of thought for thee, that him thine eyes might see
Held in thy power, and subject to thine hand.
Sore loth was he whom 'neath the yoke he brought 885
Of strong constraint, for nowise he desired

io6 EURIPIDES.

Living to meet thine eye and taste thy vengeance.
Farewell, grey queen : forget not that which erst
Thou saidst to me when I began my tale.
Make me free man ; for, touching suchlike boons, 8go
The lips that lie not best beseem the noble. [Exit.

Chorus.

{Sty. I)

Sweet to me is the dance, when clear-pealing

Ring the iiutes o'er the wine.
And when Love cometh sweetly in-stealing :

Yea, and gladness is mine
To look on my dear ones well-faring
Which aforetime were whelmed in despairing.
Many blessings fate cometh on-bearing.
With whom time paceth on, bringing healing,

Kronos' offspring divine. 900

{Ant. i)
In justice, my land, thy path lieth :

This thy crown yield to none,
That thou fearest the Gods ; who denieth.

Into madness hath run.

Lo, what sign is revealed for a token,

How the pride of wrong-doers is broken

Evermore, how to-day hath God spoken,

How the voice of Omnipotence crieth

In the deeds he hath done !

{Str. 2)

He hath died not ! — to heaven hath risen 910

Thy scion, grey queen.
Tell me never that Hades' dim prison

His long home hath been !
Nay, he soared through the flames leaping round him ;
And with honour the Spousal-god crowned him,

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 107

And to Hebe with love-links he bound him, —
Zeus' son to Zeus' daughter, — where glisten

Heaven's halls with gold-sheen.

{Ant. 2)
How oft be life's strands intertwisted !

Of Athena, men say, 920

Was their sire in hard emprise assisted ;

And the city this day,
And the folk of that Goddess hath saved them,
And hath curbed him whose blood-lust had craved

them,
Whose tyranny fain had enslaved them.
In my cause never pride be enlisted

Insatiate for prey.

Enter messenger with guards leading Eurystheus in chains.

Messenger.

O queen, thou seest, — yet shall it be told, —

Leading Eurystheus unto thee we come,

A sight unhoped, which ne'er he looked should hap,

Who ne'er had thought to fall into thine hands, [930

When from Mycenae with vast shield-essay

He marched, his thoughts high-soaring o'er his fate,

To smite our Athens. But our destinies

Fortune reversed, and changed them, his for ours. 935

Hyllus I left and valiant lolaus

Raising the victory-trophy unto Zeus.

But me they charge to bring this man to thee,

Being fain to glad thine heart : for 'tis most sweet

To see a foe triumphant once brought low. 940

Alkmena.

Loathed wretch, art come ? Justice at last hath
trapped thee !

io8 EURIPIDES.

Nay then, first turn thou hitherward thine head,

And dare to look thine enemies in the face.

No more art thou the master, but the thrall !

Art thou he — for I would be certified — 945

Who didst presume to load thine outrages.

Caitiff, on my son — whereso now he be ?

For wherein didst thou fear to outrage him,

Who didst to Hades speed him living down,

Didst send him, bidding him destroy thee Hydras 950

And lions ? All the ills thou didst devise

I name not, for the tale were all too long.

Nor yet sufficed thee this to dare alone ;

But from all Hellas me and mine didst thou

Still hunt, though suppliant to the Gods we sat, 955

These stricken in years, those little children yet.

But men, and a free city, hast thou found.

Which feared thee not. Now die the dastard's death.

Yet is thy death all gain : thou ought'st to die

Not one death, who hast wrought ills manifold. g6o

Messenger.

It may not be that thou shouldst slay this man ! Jj

Alkmena.

Captive in vain tlien have we taken him !
Prithee what law withhoideth him from death ?

Messenger.

It pleaseth not the rulers of this land.

Alkmena.

How ? — do these count it shame to slay their foes ? 965

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. 109

Messenger,

Yea, such as they have ta'en in fight unslain.

Alkmena.

Ay so ? — and this their doom hath Hyllus brooked ?

Messenger.

Should he, forsooth, defy this nation's will ?

Alkmena.

He should no more have lived, nor seen the light.

Messenger.

Then was he wronged — to die not at the first, 970

Alkmena.

So then 'twere just he suffered vengeance yet.

Messenger.

None is there, none, would put him now to death.

Alkmena.

That will I — some one I account myself.

Messenger.

Thou shalt have bitter blame, if this thou do.

Alkmena.

I love this city ; let no man gainsay : — 975

But, since this wretch hath come into mine hands,
There is of mortals none shall pluck him thence.
Wherefore who will shall rail on the overbold.

no EURIPIDES.

On her that nursed for woman thoughts too high :
Yet shall this deed by me be brought to pass. 980

Chorus.

A fearful hatred, yet a righteous, queen,
Thou hast against this man, I know full well.

EURYSTHEUS.

Woman, be sure I will not cringe to thee,

Nor utter any word beside, to save

My life, whence cowardice might stain my name. 985

Yet of my will this feud I took not up.

I knew myself born cousin unto thee.

And kinsman unto Herakles thy son.

But, would I or would not, it was the God : —

Hera with this affliction burdened me. 990

But when I had made him once mine enemy.

And knew that I must wrestle out this strife,

Deviser I became of many pains.

Aye scheming — Night sat by, and counselled me- — 1

How I might scatter and destroy my foes, 995

And have thenceforth for housemate fear no more,

Knowing thy son no cipher, but a man

In very deed ; for, though he be my foe.

Praise shall he have, a very hero he.

But, rid of him, was I not even constrained — 1000

Abhorred of these, ware of that heritage

Of enmity — to move each scorpion-stone.

By slaying, banishing, and plotting still ?

While this I did, my safety was assured.

But thou, forsooth, had but my lot been thine, 1005

Hadst spared to persecute the infuriate whelps

1 Cf. " And Guilt was my grim chamberlain.
That lighted me to bed."— Hoorf.

THE CHILDREN OF HERAKLES. iii

Left of thy foe the Hon, — wisely rather

Hadst let them dwell in Argos ?— I trow not.

Now therefore since, when I was fain to die,

They slew me not, by all the Hellene laws loio

My death pollution brings on whoso slays.

Wisely did Athens spare me, honouring more

God, far above all enmity of me.

Thou art answered. I must be hereafter named

The Haunting Vengeance, and the Heroic Dead. 1015

Thus is it with me — I long not for death,

Yet to forsake life nowise shall I grieve.

Chorus.

Suffer one word of exhortation, queen.
Let this man go ; for so the city wills.

Alkmena.
But — if he die, and I obey her still ? 1020

Chorus.
This should be best : yet how can this thing be ?

Alkmena.

This will I lightly teach thee : — I will slay.

Then yield him dead to friends that come for him.

Touching his corpse I will not cheat the state ;

But die he shall, and do me right for wrong. 1025

EURYSTHEUS.

Slay : I ask not thy grace. But I bestow

On Athens, who hath spared, who shamed to slay me,

An ancient oracle of Loxias,

Which in far days shall bless her more than seems.

Me shall ye bury where 'tis fate-ordained, 1030

Before the Virgin's shrine Pallenian ;

112 EURIPIDES.

So I, thy friend and Athens' saviour aye,

A sojourner shall lie beneath your soil,

But to these and their children sternest foe

What time they march with war-hosts hitherward,

Traitors to this your kindness : — such the guests [1035

Ye championed ! Wherefore then, if this I knew,

Came I, and feared not the God's oracles ?

Hera, methought, than these was mightier far,

And would not so forsake me. Shed not ye 1040

Drink-offerings nor blood upon my tomb.

For evil home-return will I give these

For this. Of me shall ye have double gain, —

My death shall be your blessing and their curse.

Alkmena.

Why linger then — if so ye must achieve i045

Your city's safety and your children's weal, —
To slay this man, who hear this prophecy ?
Himself the path of perfect safety points.
Your foe he is, yet is his death your gain. [1050

Hence with him, thralls. When ye have slain him, then
To dogs ye ought to cast him !^ Hope not thou
To live, and drive me again from fatherland.

[_Exennt guards with Enrystheus.

Chorus.

I also consent. On, henchman-train,
March on with the doomed. No blood-guilt stain,
Proceeding of us, on our kings shall remain. 1055

[Exeunt omnes.

1 This is inconsistent with 1023 — 4- Various explanations
have been suggested. Might Euripides have written 7rdA.ei —
" to Athens must ye yield him " ?

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY.

Vol. II.

ARGUMENT.

When Troy was taken by the Greeks, the princesses of
the House of Priam ivere apportioned by lot to the
several chiefs of the host. But Polyxena they doomed to
be sacrificed on Achilles' tomb, and Astyanax, the son of
Hector and Andromache, they hurled from a Jiigh tower.
And herein is told how all this befell ; and beside there
is naught else save the lamentations of these Daughters
of Troy, till the city is set aflame, and the captives are
driven doivn to the sea.

DRAMATIS PERSON.^.

Poseidon, the God of the Sea,

Athena.

Hecuba, wife of Priam King of Troy.

Talthybius, herald of the host of Hellas.

Kassandra, daughter of Hecuba, the prophetess whose doom

was to be believed by none.
Andromache, wife of Hector, mother of Astyanax.
Menelaus, king of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon.
Helen, wife of Menelaus.
Chorus, consisting of captive Trojan womoi.
Astyanax, infant son of Hector ; guards, soldiers, attendants
Scene : — The Greek camp before Troy.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY.

Hecuba discovered sleeping on the earth before Aga-
memnon's tent. Enter Poseidon.

Poseidon.

I come, Poseidon I, from briny depths
Of the Aegean Sea, where Nereids dance
In lovely-woven pacings of their feet.
For, since the day when round this Trojan land
Phoebus and I by line and plummet reared 5

Her towers of stone, from mine heart ne'er hath fled
Old lovingkindness for the Phrygians' city,
Smoke-shrouded now and wasted and brought low
By Argos' spear. For that Parnassian wright,
Phokian Epeius, by device of Pallas 10

Fashioned the horse whose womb was fraught with

arms,
And sent within yon towers its ruin-load,
Whence of men yet unborn shall it be named
The Wooden Horse, enfolder of ambushed spears.
Forsaken are the groves: the shrines of Gods 15

With blood are dripping : on the altar-steps
Of City-warder Zeus lies Priam dead.
Measureless gold and Phrygian spoils pass down
Unto the ships Achaian. They but wait

ii8 EURIPIDES.

A breeze fair-following, that in this tenth year 20

Children and wives with joy they may behold,

These Hellene men which marched against yon town.

I, overborne by Hera, Argos' Queen,

And by Athena, leagued for Phrygia's fall,

Ilium the glorious and mine altars leave. 25

For when grim desolation hath seized a town,

Blighted are worship and honour of the Gods.

With wails of captives multitudinous.

Marked for their lords by lot, Skamander moans :

Some have Arcadians won, Thessalians some, 30

Some fall to Athens' chieftains, Theseus' sons.

And all Troy's daughters not by lot assigned

Are 'neath these tents, for captains of the host

Set by : with these the Spartan, Tyndareus' child,

Helen, accounted captive righteously. 35

But, the utter-wretched if one craves to see,

There lieth Hecuba before the gates,

Down-raining many a tear for many woes,—

Yet knows not that her child Polyxena

Hath on Achilles' grave died piteously. 40

Priam, her sons, are gone : Kassandra — whom

Apollo left free virgin frenzy-driven, —

Shall Agamemnon force, his leman-slave,

Flouting the God's decree and righteousness.

O city prosperous once, O hewn-stone towers, 45

Farewell to you ! Had Pallas, Zeus's child,

Not ruined thee, firm-stablished wert thou yet !

Enter Athena.

Athena.

Is it vouchsafed to bid the old feud truce,

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 119

And speak vmto my father's nearest kin,

The mighty lord, honoured amongst the Gods ? 50

Poseidon.

It is : for ties of kindred, Queen Athena,

Draw hearts with strong-constraining cords of love.

Athena.

'Tis well, King — thy relenting. Lo, the words
1 cast between us touch both thee and me.

Poseidon.

Ha ! bringest thou some message from the Gods ? — 55
A word from Zeus, or from som.e Heavenly One ?

Athena.

Nay, for Troy's sake, upon whose soil we tread,
I seek thy might, to win it mine ally.

Poseidon.

So ? — hast thou cast out thine old enmity.

To pity her, now that she is burnt with fire ? 60

Athena.

Nay — my petition first — wilt join with me ?
Wilt thou consent in that I fain would do ?

Poseidon.

Yea verily : yet I fain would know thy will.
Com'st thou to help Achaian men or Phrygian ?

120 EURIPIDES.

Athena.

Mine erstwhile foes the Trojans would I cheer, 65

And deal Achaia's host grim home-return.

Poseidon.

Yet why from mood to mood thus leapest thou,
In random sort bestowing hate and love ?

Athena.

Know'st not how I was outraged, and my shrine ?

Poseidon.

I know — when Aias dragged Kassandra thence. 70

Athena.

Unpunished of the Achaians — unrebuked !

Poseidon.

Yea, though by thy might these laid Ilium low.

Athena.

Therefore with thine help would I work their scathe.

Poseidon.

Mine help awaits thy will. What wouldst thou do ?

Athena.

Deal them a home-return of evil speed. 75

Poseidon.

Ere they leave Troy, or on the briny sea ?

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 121

Athena.

When homeward-bound they sail for Ilium.

Then Zeus shall send down rain unutterable,

And hail, and from the welkin night of storm ;

And to me promiseth his levin-flame 80

To smite the Achaians and burn their ships with fire.

But thou — the Aegean sea-pass make thou roar

With surge and whirlpits of the ravening brine,

And thou with corpses choke Euboea's gulf;

That Greeks may learn henceforth to reverence 85

My temples, and to fear all Gods beside.

Poseidon.

This shall be : thy boon needs not many words.

The wide Aegean sea will I turmoil ;

The shores of Mykonus, the Dehan reefs,

Skyros, and Lemnos, the Kapherean cliffs go

With many dead men's corpses shall be strewn.

Pass thou to Olympus ; from thy father's hands

Receive the levin-bolts, and watch the hour

When Argos' host shall cast the hawsers loose.

Fool, that in sack of towns lays temples waste, ^ 95

And tombs, the sanctuaries of the dead !

He, sowing desolation, reaps destruction.

\Exeunt.
Heciiha awaking, raises herself on her arm.

Hecuba.

[Str. i)
UpUft thou thine head, O fortune-accurst ; from the
earth upraise thy neck bowed low.

^ Reading iKiropOwv, with Tyrrell.

122 EURIPIDES.

This ruin is not thy Troy, nor the lords are we now of

Troy, and the fate- winds blow loo

Not as of old ; thou must bear it, must drift with the

stream, as the tides of Fortune flow.
Breast not with thy prow the surges of life, who on

waves of disaster, alas ! art tost.
What remaineth to me but the misery-moan, whose

country, whose children, whose husband, are lost ?

0 proud-swelling sail of a kingly line reefed now ! —

how a thing but of nought thou wast !

{Ant. i)
What shall I speak ? — what leave unsaid ? — woe's me

for the couch of the evil-starred ! no

Lo, how I lie unrestfully stretched on the bed of

calamity pitiless hard !
Alas for mine head, for my throbbing brows, for mine

heart in its aching prison barred !

1 yearn to rock me and sway — as a bark whose bul-

warks roll in the trough of the sea —
To my keening, the while I wail my chant of sorrow

and weeping unceasingly,
The ruin-song never linked with the dance, the jangled
music of misery. 120

Rises to her feet and advances to front of stage.

{Str. 2)
O ship-prows rushing

To Ilium, brushing

The purple-flushing sea with swift oars,

Till flutes loud-ringing.

Till pipes dread-singing

Proclaimed you swinging off Phrygian shores

On hawsers plaited

By Nile' — ships fated

* Reading TratStu/xa (Tyrrell).

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 123

To hunt the hated, the Spartan wile, 130

Raster's defaming,

Eurotas' shaming,

A Fury claiming King Priam's life !

Though sons he cherished

Fifty, he perished,

His murderess she : and the misery-rife,

Even me, hath she wrecked on the rocks of

strife.

{Ant. 2)

Woe for my session

Mid foes' oppression !

Woe, slave-procession ! Woe, grey shorn head !

Come, wife grief-laden, [140

Come bride, come maiden,

O hearts once stayed on the brave hearts dead !

Wail we our yearning

O'er Ilium burning ! —

As o'er nestlings turning to her sheltering wing

The mother screameth.

My song-flood streameth —

Not such, meseemeth, as wont to ring

When I beat time, raising 150

The Gods' sweet praising,

And watched Troy's dances around me swing
As I leaned on the sceptre of Priam my king.

Eyitcr from the tents Half-Chorus of captive Trojan

women.

Half-Chorus i.

{Str. 3)

Why call'st thou, Hecuba ? — why dost thou cry ?

What mean thy words ? The tents were filled

124 EURIPIDES.

With this lament thou wailest woefully,
And fear through all hearts thrilled

Of Troy's sad daughters, who for thraldom wail,
In yon pavilions while we bide.

Hecuba.

Child, child, the Argive hands with oar and sail i6o
Are busy by the tide.

Half-Chorus I.

Ah me ! what mean they ? Will they straightway
bear us
From fatherland far oversea ?

Hecuba.

I know not : I but bode the curse drawn near us.
The doom of misery.

Half-Chorus i.

Woe ! — we shall hear the summons, " O ye daughters

Of Troy, from these pavilions come :
The Argives launch their keels upon the waters.
The sails are spread for home ! "

Hecuba.

Alas ! let none call forth the frenzy-driven

Kassandra, bacchant-prophetess, 170

For Argive lust to shame, lest there be given
Distress to my distress !

Troy, Troy, unhappy ! down through depths of ruin
Thou sinkest ! — ah, unhappy they.

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 125

Thy lost ! — thy living pass to their undoing,
Thy dead have passed away.

Enter Second Half-Chorus.

Half-Chorus 2.

{Ant. 3)
Ah me ! from Agamemnon's tents in dread

I come, to hearken, queen, to thee,
Lest haply now the Argive doom be said, —
A doom of death for me ;

Or haply at the galley-sterns the sweeps, 180

Run out, are swinging through the brine.

Hecuba.

Child, I have come, since ne'er for terror sleeps
This haunted heart of mine.

Half-Chorus 2.

How ? — hath a Danaan herald hither wending

Spoken our doom ? Whose thrall am wretched I
Ordained ?

Hecuba.

Thine anguish of suspense is ending :
The lot, thy fate, is nigh.

Half-Chorus 2.

Ah me ! what lord of Argos' folk shall lead me

Hence, or what chief of Phthia-land ?
What island-prince to misery shall speed me
Far from the Trojan strand ?

126 EURIPIDES.

Hecuba.

Woe ! On what spot of earth shall I, eld-stricken, igo

Be thrall, a drone within the hive.
Weak as the corpse that breath no more shall quicken,
Ghost of the once-alive,

To keep with palsied hand a master's portal,
To nurse the babes of some proud foe ? —
I, who was crowned with honours half-immortal
In Troy — ah, long ago !

Chorus.

{Str. 4)

Woe is thee ! — with what wailings wilt thou lament thy

doom

Of outrage-shame ?
As I pace to and fro shall my shuttle thread no loom

In Troy again ! 200

On the corpses of sons must I look my last — my last,

Whom worse ills wait,
To be thrall to the couch of a Greek — ah, ruin blast

That night —that fate !—

Or the water to draw from Peirene's hallowed spring
With bondmaid's hand : —

Yet oh might I come unto where was Theseus king.
That heaven-blest land ! —

But not to the swirls of Eurotas, not the bower 210

Of my worst foe,
Even Helen — oh not into Menelaus' power

Who brought Troy low !

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 127

{Ant. 4)
But the land of Peneius, Olympus' footstool fair,

The hallowed vale —
I have heard of the store of its wealth ; earth's increase
there

Doth never fail.

It is there I would be, if on Theseus' sacred shore

No home waits me.
And the land of the Fire-god, that looks from Etna o'er

Phoenicia's sea, [220

Even Sicily, mother of hills, — her fame I hear,

Her prowess-pride : —
Or content could I dwell in the land that coucheth
near

Ionia's tide.

Which is watered of Krathis, the lovely stream that
stains

Dark hair bright gold,
Of whose fountains most holy her hero-nursing plains

Win wealth untold.

Lo, from the Danaan war-host, laden 230

With tidings, unto us draws nigh

A herald speeding hastily.
What hest brings he ? — henceforth bondmaiden
Of Dorian land am I !

Enter Talthybius.

Talthybius.

On many journeyings, Hecuba, to and fro 235

I have passed, thou knowest, 'twixt the host and Troy ;

128 EURIPIDES.

Wherefore I come aforetime known to thee,
Talthybius, with new tidings for thine ear.

Hecuba.

It is come, friends — that which hath laid upon me
Long fear as a haunting spell ! 240

Talthybius.

Your lots are cast — if this thing was your fear

Hecuba.

Woe !— of what city in Thessaly,
Or in Kadmus' land, dost thou tell ?

Talthybius.

Ye have fallen each to her lord, not altogether,

Hecuba.

Unto whom hath each been allotted ? — for whom 245
Of Troy's dames waiteth a happy doom ?

Talthybius.
I know : — but ask of each, not all as one.

Hecuba.

But my daughter — who winneth her for a prey,
Kassandra the misery-bowed ? O say !

t

Talthybius.
King Agamemnon's chosen prize is she. 250

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 129

Hecuba.

Ha ! to his Spartan wife shall she be

A handmaid, a bondwoman ? — woe is me !

Talthybius.

Nay, but his concubine in secret love.

Hecuba.

How ? — Phoebus' maiden, whose guerdon-grace

Of the Golden -haired was virgin days ! 255

Talthybius.

The maid inspired smote him with shafts of love.

Hecuba.

Fhng, daughter, the temple-keys from thee, fling,
And the garlands around thy neck that cling,
Whose sacred arrayings thy form enring !

Talthybius.

How ? is a king's couch not high honour for her ? 260

Hecuba.

And the child that ye tore from mine arms so late —

Talthybius.

Polyxena ? — or whose lot wouldst thou ask ?

Hecuba.

Unto whom hath the lot's doom yoked her fate ?

Vol. II. K

I30 EURIPIDES.

Talthybius.

She is made ministrant to Achilles' tomb.

Hecuba.

Woe's me ! — then a sepulchre's servant I bare ! 265
But what custom shall this be that Hellenes share,
Or what this statute ? — O friend, declare.

Talthybius.

Count thy child happy. It is well with her.

Hecuba.

Doth she yet see light ? — did thy word so sound ?

Talthybius.

She hath found her fate — deliverance from troubles. 270

Hecuba.

But the wife of mine Hector the champion renowned —
What doom hath the hapless Andromache found ?

Talthybius.

Achilles' son hath won her, chosen for him.

Hecuba.

And to whom am I handmaid, whose snow- wreathed
brow 275

Over the prop of a staff must bow ?

Talthybius.

Thee Ithaca's king Odysseus won, his thrall.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 131

Hecuba.

Alas and alas ! now smite on thy close-shorn head ;
Now with thy rending nails be thy cheeks furrowed
red ! 280

Woe's me, whom the doom of the lots hath led
To be thrall to a foul wretch" treacherous-hearted,
To the lawless monster, the foe of the right,
Whose double-tongued juggling, whose cursed sleight
Putteth light for darkness, and darkness for light,
By whose whisperings veriest friends are parted ! —
Wail for me, daughters of Troy ! I am ended

In utter calamity.
O wretch, who by doom of the lot have descended 290

To abysses of misery !

Chorus.

Thy fate thou knowest, queen : but of my lot
What Hellene, what Achaian, hath control ?

Talthybius.

Away ! — Kassandra hither must ye bring

With all speed, thralls, that to the war-king's hand 295

Delivering her, I may thereafter lead

Unto the rest the captive dames assigned.

Ha ! — therewithin what torch-glare leapeth high ?

Fire they their lair ? — or what, yon dames of Troy ?

As looking to be haled from this land forth 300

To Argos, do they burn themselves with fire.

Being fain to die ? In sooth the free-born soul

In such strait chafeth fiercely against ills.

Ho ! open, lest a deed beseeming these,

But to Achaians hateful, bring me blame. 305

132 EURIPIDES.

Hecuba.

Now nay, they fire no tent. My Maenad child
Kassandra cometh rushing hitherward.

Enter Kassandra carrying burning torches.

Kassandra.

(Sir.)
Up with the torch ! — give it me — let me render

Worship to Phoebus ! — lo, lo how I fling
Wide through his temple the flash of its splendour : —

Hymen ! O Marriage-god, Hymen my king ! [310
Happy the bridegroom who waiteth to meet me ;
Happy am I for the couch that shall greet me ;

Royal espousals to Argos I bring : —

Bridal-king, Hymen, thy glory 1 sing.

Mother, thou lingerest long at thy weeping.

Aye makest moan for my sire who hath died,
Mourn'st our dear country with sorrow unsleeping :

Therefore myself for mine own marriage-tide
Kindle the firebrands, a glory outstreaming, 320

Toss up the torches, a radiance far-gleaming : —
Hymen, to thee is their brightness upleaping ;
Hekate, flash thou thy star-glitter wide,

After thy wont when a maid is a bride.

(Ant.)
Float, flying feet of the dancers, forth-leading

Revel of bridals : ring, bacchanal strain.
Ring in thanksgiving for fortune exceeding

Happy, that fell to my father to gain.
Holy the dance is, my duty, my glory :
Lead thou it, Phoebus ; midst bay-trees before thee

Aye have I ministered, there in thy fane : — 330

Marriage-king, Hymen ! — sing loud the refrain.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 133

Up, mother, join thou the revel :— with paces

Woven with mine through the sweet measure flee ;

Hitherward, thitherward, thrid the dance-mazes :
Sing ever " Marriage-king ! — Hymen ! " sing ye.

BHss ever chime through the notes of your singing,

Hail ye the bride with glad voices outringing.

Daughters of Phrygia, arrayed like the Graces,
Hymn ye my bridal, the bridegroom for me
Destined by fate's everlasting decree. 340

Chorus.

Queen, wilt thou not restrain this Maenad maid.
Lest with light step she trip to Argos' host ?

Hecuba.

Fire-god, in spousal-rites thou light'st the torch ;

But O, a piteous flame thou kindlest now,

Far from mine high hopes, far ! — ah me, my child, 345

How little of such marriage dreamed I ever

For thee, — a captive, thrall of Argos' spear !

Give me the torch, it fits not that thou bear it

In Maenad frenzy. Thy misfortunes, child.

Healed not thy mind, but thou remain'st possessed. 350

Daughters of Troy, bear in the torches : give

Tears in exchange for these her marriage-hymns,

Kassandra.

Mother, with wreaths of triumph crown mine head.
Rejoice thou o'er my marriage with a king.
Escort me to him : if thou find me loth, 355

With violence thrust me : for, if Loxias lives.
Deadlier than Helen's shall my spousals be

134 EURIPIDES.

To Agamemnon, Achaia's glorious king.

Death shall I deal him, havoc of his home,

Avenging so my brethren and my sire : — 360

No more of that ; I will not sing the axe

That on my neck, and others' necks, shall fall, —

The mother-murdering strife, my spousal's fruit,

Nor of the overthrow of Atreus' house.

But I will prove this city happier 365

Than yon Achaians, — yea, possessed am I,

Yet herein stand of bacchant ravings clear, — •

Who for one woman, for one wanton's sake.

In quest of Helen wasted lives untold.

And this wise chief — for that he hated most 370

He hath lost what most he loved, home-joys of children

To his brother for a woman's sake resigned, —

And she a willing prey, no kidnapped victim !

And, when these came unto Skamander's banks.

Fast died they, not for marches foeman-harried, 375

Nor home-land stately-towered. Whom Ares slew

Saw not their children, nor by hands of wives

In robes were shrouded : but in a strange land

They lie. And in their homes the like befell :

Wives widowed died, sires linger in lone halls 380

Without sons, whom for nought they nurtured ; none

Remains to spill earth's blood-gift at their tombs.

Sooth, well the host hath earned such praise as

this !
Best left untold the deeds of shame — not mine
Be voice of song to chant that evil tale ! 385

But, for the Trojans, first, — renown most fair, —
For fatherland they died. Whom Ares slew,
By friends their corpses to their homes were borne,
And in the home-land earth's arms cradled them

i

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 135

Compassed with duteous hands' observances. 390

And whatso Phrygians not in battle died

Ever with wife and children day by day

Dwelt, joys whereof the Achaians tasted none.

For Hector's woeful fate — hear thou the truth :

He proved himself a hero ere he died ; 395

And this the Achaians' coming brought to pass :

Had they in Greece stayed, none had seen his prowess.

And Paris wedded Zeus' child : had he not,

His halls had hailed affiance unrenowned.

Sooth, he were best shun war, whoso is wise : 400

If war must be, his country's crown of pride

Is death heroic, craven death her shame.

Then make not moan, O mother, for thy land,

Nor for my couch ; for my most bitter foes

And thine shall I destroy by mine espousals. 405

Talthybius.

Had Phoebus not with frenzy thrilled thy soul,

Thou with such bodings shouldst not unchastised

Speed from thy land my lords, the battle-chiefs. 410

Lo, how these lofty ones, wise in repute,

Are no whit better than the nothing-worth 1

For this most mighty king of allied Hellas,

This Atreus' son, hath stooped him 'neath love's yoke

For yon mad girl, of all maids ! Poor am I, 415

Yet would I ne'er have gotten me her couch.

Now, seeing thou hast not unshattered wit,

Thy mocks at Argos and thy praise of Phrygia

I fling to the winds to scatter. Follow me

Unto the ships, our captain's goodly bride ! 420

But thou, {to Hecuba) whenso Laertes' seed desires

136 EURIPIDES.

To take thee, follow. A virtuous woman's thrall^
Shalt thou be, as say all that came to Troy.

Kassandra.

Keen-witted varlet this ! Why such repute

Have heralds, common loathing of mankind, 425

Menials that wait on despots and on cities ?

Say'st thou my mother to Odysseus' halls

Shall come ? Where be Apollo's bodings then.

Which say — to me no mystery — that she

Shall here die ? — other shame I will not speak. ^ 430

Wretch ! — he knows not what sufferings wait for him,

Such, that my woes and Phrygia's yet shall seem

As gold to him. Ten years to these past ten

Accomplished, shall he reach his land — alone ;

Shall see where in the rock-gorge fell Charybdis 435

Hath made her lair, — where mountain-haunting Cyclops

Ravins, — see her that turneth men to swine,

Ligurian Circe, — shipwreck in salt seas, —

The lotus-cravings, the Sun's sacred kine,

Whose dead ilesh with a human voice shall moan 440

A dire voice for Odysseus. To make end,

He shall see Hades living, 'scape the sea,

Yet, when he winneth home, find ills untold.

Yet — Odysseus' troubles, wherefore should I loose their

javelin-flight ?
On, that I may haste to wed my bridegroom, Hades'

spousal-plight. 445

Vile one, vile shall be thy burial, darkling, not in light

of day,

1 i.e. slave to Penelope.

2 i.e. the manner of her death. See Hecuba, 11. 1259 — 73.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 137

Thou that dream'st of high achievement, chief of

Danaus' sons' array.
Yea, and me, flung out a naked corse, the mountain's

chasm-rift
Foaming with the wintry floods, shall give to beasts, a

ravin-gift.
Hard beside my bridegroom's grave — Apollo's priestess-
handmaid, me ! 450
Garlands of the God most dear unto me, mystic bravery,
Farewell : I have left the temple-feasts, my joy in days

o'erpast :
Hence, in rendings from my body, that, while yet my

blood is chaste,
I may give them to the blasts to waft to thee, O Prophet-
lord !
Where is Agamemnon's galley ? — whither go to pass

aboard ? 455

Loiter not from eager watching for the breeze to fill

the sail :
One of the Avengers Three is this that thou from Troy

shalt hale.
Fare-thee-well, my mother, weep not ; — fatherland,

beloved name ; —
Ye beneath the sod, my brethren ; — father, of whose

loins I came ; —
'Tis not long ere ye shall greet me : I unto my dead

shall come 460

Triumph-crowned from havoc of the Atreid house that

wrought our doom.

[Exit Talthybius with Kassandra.

Chorus.

Grey Hecuba's attendants, mark ye not
Your mistress sinking speechless to the earth ?

138 EURIPIDES.

Will ye not help her, heartless ones, but leave

Her grey hairs prostrate ? Bear ye up her frame. 465

Hecuba.

Leave me — false kindness were unkindness, girls, —
So fallen to lie. Well may I sink 'neath all
I suffer, and have suffered, and shall suffer.

0 Gods ! — to sorry helpers I appeal ;

Yet to invoke the Gods hath some fair show 470

When child of man on evil fortune lights.
Fain am I first to chant mine olden bliss ;
So shall I wake more ruth for these my woes.

1 was a princess, wedded to a king,

And mother I became of princely sons, 475

Nor ciphers these, but Phrygia's mightiest chiefs :

Trojan nor Greek dame, nor barbarian.

Might ever boast her mother of such as these.

Yet these I saw by Hellene spears laid low.

And shore these tresses at my dead sons' graves. 480

Their father Priam — not from other lips

I heard and wept his doom, but these mine eyes

Beheld him butchered on the altar-stone,

Troy sacked, the maiden daughters I had nursed

For pride of princely spousals without peer, 485

Torn from mine arms — for others reared I them !

No hope have I of being seen of them,

No, nor of seeing them for evermore.

And last, the topstone of my misery,

Old, and a slave, to Hellas shall I come ; 490

And what tasks for mine eld are most unmeet,

To these will they appoint me, to keep keys,

A portress, — me, who gave to Hector birth ! —

Or knead their bread, and couch upon the ground

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 139

The wasted form that knew a royal bed, 495

With tattered rags to clothe my shrunken frame,

Vesture unmeet for those once throned in bHss.

O wretched I ! — for one wife's bridal's sake

What have I borne ? — what am I yet to bear ?

O child, Kassandra, bacchant-fellow of Gods, 500

Mid what disaster ends thy virgin state !

And thou, my poor Polyxena, where art thou ?

Nor son nor daughter, none remains to help

The wretched mother, of all born to her.

Wherefore then raise me up ? — by what hopes cheered ?

Guide me, — who once in Troy trod delicately, [505

Who am a slave now, — to some earth-strown bed,

Some rocky brow, to weep mine heart away,

And hurl me then to death. Of all that prosper

Account ye no man happy ere he die. 510

Chorus.

{Str. i)
O Song-goddess, chant in mine ear

The doom of mine Ilium : sing
Thy strange notes broken with sob and tear
That o'er sepulchres sigh where our dear dead lie :
For now through my lips outwailing clear
Troy's ruin-dirge shall ring, —
How the Argives' four-foot wain'
Brought me ruin with spear and with chain,
When clashed to the sky that armoury^

That they left at our gates for our bane — 520

That gold-decked thing !

1 The Wooden Horse.

2 Alluding to the clang of arms from within, of which the
Trojans in their infatuation took no heed, as they dragged
it into the city. Cf. Virgil, Aen. ii, 243.

I40 EURIPIDES.

And afar from the rock's sheer crest
A shout did the Troy-folk fling —
" Come, ye that from troubles have now found rest,
And the sacred image bring
To the Ilian Maid' Zeus bare ! "
Who then of the youths but was there ?
What hoary head but from home forth sped,
With songs that ruin-snare

Encompassing ? 530

{Ant. i)
Swift streamed they all to the gate,
The children of Dardanus' line,
With the Argives' gift to propitiate
The Maid supreme of the deathless team^ :
And to Phrygia's curse, to the ambushed fate
That was pent in the mountain-pine.
The coils of the flax have they tied.
Like a dark ship on did it glide
To the marble-gleam of the fane, with the stream
Of our fatherland's blood to be dyed,

Even Pallas' shrine. 540

Now over their toil and their glee

Spread black night's wings divine ;
But the flute still pealeth merrily.

Still wreathe the dancers and twine
The fairy-footed maze ;
And the jubilant chant they raise ;

1 Pallas Athena, who sprang from the head of Zeus. See
Ion, 452 — 6.

2 Athena, one of whose titles was " Pallas of the chariot-
steeds."

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 141

And the homes glow red with the splendours shed
From the torches, with lurid blaze

O'er the sleepers that shine. 550

{Epode)
In that hour to the Mountain Maiden,
Unto Artemis, Zeus's Daughter,
Around mine halls was I singing
In the dance : but a fierce shout murder-laden

Thrilled with foreboding of slaughter
Pergamus' homes, and scared babes flying

Round the skirts of their mothers their
hands were flinging

At that awful outcrying.

Then burst forth War from the place of his hiding, 560
From the lair that Pallas had framed forth-springing ;
Troy's altar-pavements with slaughter were stream-
ing.
To her couches a ghastly guest came gliding —
A spectre of headless men, Desolation —
To the foster-mother of warriors bringing,
Unto Hellas, a coronal triumph-gleaming.
And a crown of grief to the Phrygian nation.

Lo Andromache, Queen, draweth nigh on

A wain of the foe borne high ;
On her breast rocked, Hector's scion, 570

Dear Astyanax, doth lie.

Enter Andromache on a mule-car heaped with armour :
her child in her arms.

Hecuba.

Whitherward on the height of the car dost thou ride,

142 EURIPIDES.

O hapless wife, with the arms at thy side
Of Hector, and Phrygian battle-gear,

The spoil of the spear.
Wherewith that son of Achilles shall deck
The shrines of Phthia from Phrygia's wreck ?

Andromache.

{Sir. 2)
Achaians our masters to bondage are haling me.

Hecuba.
Woe!

Andromache.

Why dost thou chant my paean of misery ?

Hecuba.
Alas !—

Andromache.

For our burden of woe,—

Hecuba.
O Zeus !—

Andromache.

For the anguish we know ! 580

Hecuba.

Ah children !

Andromache.
No more are we !

Hecuba.

{Ant. 2)

Gone is the olden prosperity, Troy is no more !

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 143

Andromache.
Ah wretch !

Hecuba.

Woe's me for the hero-sons that I bore !

Andromache.
Woe!—

Hecuba.

For griefs on mine head that fall !

Andromache.

Ah the pity of Ilium's wall —

Hecuba.

With the smoke-pall shrouded o'er !

Andromache.

Come to me, husband, now ! —

Hecuba.

Thou criest on him that is gone,
O hapless, to Hades, my son —

Andromache.

Thy wife's defender thou !

Hecuba.

Thou on whom did Achaians heap
Outrage, whom eldest I bare
Unto Priam in days that were,
To thine Hades receive me to sleep.

{Str. 3)

{Ant. 3)

144 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.

Sore are our yearnings, sharp anguish is come on us,

O sorrow-stricken : 590

Ruined our city is ; cloud over cloud do our miseries

thicken,
Sent by the hate of the Gods, since thy son was from

Hades delivered,'
He for whose bridal accurst were the bulwarks of

Ilium shivered.
Pallas the Goddess is left amid corpses blood-boultered

that crowd her,^
Spoil for the vultures, and Troy 'neath the yoke-band

of thraldom hath bowed her.

Hecuba.

Fatherland, hapless, I weep thee, who now, of our faces

forlorn,
Seest the pitiful end, and mine home where my children

were born.
Children, bereft of my city am I, and from me are ye
going-
How wild is our wailing, our woe how deep ! —
Tears upon tears are flowing, flowing, [600

Mid our desolate homes : — the dead only, un-
knowing

Of sorrow, forgetteth to weep.

I Paris, spared at his birth, in spite of the prophecy that
he should ruin Troy.

~ Her statue stands deserted in her temple, which is
polluted with heaps of slain. See 1. 15.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 145

Chorus.

How sweet unto afflicted souls are tears,
Lamentings, and the chant with sorrow fraught ! 605

Andromache.

Mother of hero Hector, whose spear slew

In days past many an Argive, seest thou this ?

. Hecuba.

I see the Gods' work, who exalt on high
That which was naught, and bring the proud names
low.

Andromache.

I with my child a spoil am haled ; high birth 610

Hath come to bondage — ah the change, the change !

Hecuba.

Mighty is Fate : — -from mine arms too but now
By violence torn Kassandra passed away.

Andromache.

Alas and alas !

Meseems a second Aias^ for thy child

Hath risen. Yet hast thou more afflictions still, — 615

Hecuba.

Measure nor numbering whereof I know ;
For ill to rival ill comes evermore.

I See lines 69, 70.
Vol. H. L

146 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.

Slain at Achilles' tomb, Polyxena

Thy child is dead, a gift to a lifeless corpse.

Hecuba.

O wretched I ! — The riddle this that erst 620

Talthybius spake, not clearly — oh, too clear !

Andromache,

Myself beheld : I lighted from this car,

Veiled with my robes the corse, and smote my breast.

Hecuba.

Woe's me, my child, for thine unhallowed slaughter !
Woe yet again ! How foully hast thou died ! 625

Andromache.

She hath died — as she hath died : yet by a fate
More blest than mine, who yet live, hath she died.

Hecuba.

Not one, my child, with sight of day is death ;
For this is naught, in that is space for hope.

Andromache.

Mother, O mother, a fairer, truer word

Hear, that I may with solace touch thine heart : — 630

To have been unborn I count as one with death ;

But better death than life in bitterness.

No pain feels death, which hath no sense of ills :

But who hath prospered, and hath fallen on woe,

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 147

Forlorn of soul strays far from olden bliss. 635

Thy child, as though she ne'er had looked on light,

Is dead, and nothing knoweth of her ills.

But I, who drew my bow at fair repute,

Won overmeasure, yet fair fortune missed.

All virtuous fame that women e'er have found, 640

This was my quest, my gain, 'neath Hector's roof.

First — be the woman smirched with other stain,

Or be she not — this very thing shall bring

111 fame, if one abide not in the home :

So banished I such craving, kept the house : 645

Within my bowers I suffered not to come

The tinsel-talk of women, Hved content

To be in virtue schooled by mine own heart ;

With silent tongue, with quiet eye, still met

My lord ; knew in what matters I should rule, 650

And where 'twas meet to yield him victory :

Whereof the fame to the Achaian host

Reached, — for my ruin ; for, when I was ta'en,

Achilles' son would have me for his wife ;

And I shall serve within his murderers' halls. 655

If from mine heart I thrust my love, mine Hector,

And to this new lord ope the doors thereof,

I shall be traitress to the dead : but if

I loathe this prince, shall win my masters' hate.

And yet one night, say they, unknits the knot 660

Of woman's hate of any husband's couch !

I scorn the wife who flings her sometime lord

Away, and on a new couch loves another !

Not even the steed, from her stall-mate disyoked,

Will with a willing spirit draw the yoke ; 665

Yet speech nor understanding in the brute

Is found, whose nature lags behind the man.

148 EURIPIDES.

Thou, O mine Hector, wast my fitting mate

In birth and wisdom, mighty in wealth and valour.

Stainless from my sire's halls thou tookest me, 670

And first didst yoke with thine my maiden couch.

Now hast thou perished : sea-borne I shall be,

Spear-won, to Hellas, unto thraldom's yoke.

Hath not the doom then of Polyxena,

Whom thou lamentest, lesser ills than mine ? 675

With me not even is hope, which lingers last

With all ; nor with far vision of good I cheat

Mine heart, though sweet thereof the day-dream were.

Chorus.

Even as mine is thy calamity :

Thy wail doth teach me all my depth of woes. 680

Hecuba.

Though never yet I stepped aboard a ship,

From pictures seen and hearsay know I this.

That, if there lie a storm not passing great

On mariners, for deliverance all bestir them :

This standeth by the helm, that by the sail ; 685

That baleth ship : but if the sea's full flood

In turmoil overwhelm them, cowed by fate

To the waves' driving they commit themselves.

So I withal, though many a woe is mine.

Am dumb, and I refrain my lips from speech, 690

For the Gods' misery-surge o'ermastereth me.

But, dear my daughter, let be Hector's fate.

Seeing no tears of thine shall ransom him ;

But honour him that is to-day thy lord,

Tendering the sweet lure of thy winsomeness. 695

I

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 149

If this thou do, thy friends shall share thy joy,

And this my son's son shalt thou rear to man,

To Troy a mighty aid, that children born

Of thee hereafter may in days to come

Build her, and yet again our city rise. 700

But — for a new fate followeth on the old —

What servant of the Achaians see I stride

Hitherward, herald of their new resolve ?

Enter Talthybiiis.

Talthybius.

0 wife of Hector, Phrygia's mightiest once.

Abhor me not : sore loth shall I announce 705

The Danaans' hest, the word of Pelops' sons.

Andromache.
What now ? — with what ill preface dost begin !

Talthybius.
This child, have they decreed — how can I say it ?

Andromache.
Not — that he shall not have one lord with me ?

Talthybius.
None of Achaians e'er shall be his lord, 710

Andromache.
How ? — here, a Phrygian remnant, shall he bide ?

Talthybius.

1 know not gently how to break sad tidings !

150 EURIPIDES.

Andromache.
Thanks for thy shrinking, save thou bring glad tidings.

Talthybius.
Thy son must die — since thou must hear the horror.

Andromache.
Ah me ! — a worse ill this than thraldom's couch ! 715

Talthybius.
Odysseus' speech to assembled Greeks prevailed —

Andromache.
O God ! O God ! what measureless ill is mine !

Talthybius.
Warning them not to rear a hero's son.

Andromache.
May like rede dooming sons of his prevail !

Talthybius.

He must be hurled from battlements of Troy. 720

Then let this be, so wiser shalt thou show,
Nor cling to him, but queenlike bear thy pain,
Nor, being strengthless, dream that thou art strong.
For nowhere hast thou help : needs must thou mark —
City and lord are gone ; thou art held in thrall ; 725
For battle with one woman strong are we.
Wherefore I would not see thee set on strife.
Nor doing aught should breed thee shame or spite,

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 151

Nor on the Achaians hurling malisons.

For, if to wrath thy words shall rouse the host, 730

This child shall find no burial, no, nor ruth.

Nay, hold thy peace, and meekly bow to fate ;

So not unburied shalt thou leave his corse,

And kindlier the Achaians shalt thou find.

Andromache.

O darling child, O prized above all price, 735

Thou must leave thy poor mother, die by foes !

Thy father's heroism ruineth thee.

Which unto others was deliverance.

Ill-timed thy father's prowess was for thee !

O bridal mine and union evil-starred, 740

Whereby I came, time was, to Hector's hall,

Not as to bear a babe for Greeks to slay.

Nay, but a king for Asia's fruitful land !

Child, dost thou weep ? — dost comprehend thy doom ?

Why with thine hands clutch, clinging to my robe, 745

Like fledgling fleeing to nestle 'neath my wings ?

No Hector, glorious spear in grip, shall rise

From earth, and bringing thee deliverance come.

No kinsman of thy sire, no might of Phrygians ;

But, falling from on high with horrible plunge, 750

Unpitied shalt thou dash away thy breath.

O tender nursling, sweet to mother, sweet !

O balmy breath ! — in vain and all in vain

This breast in swaddling-bands hath nurtured thee.

Vainly I travailed and was spent with toils ! 755

Now, and no more for ever, kiss thy mother,

Fling thee on her that bare thee, twine thine arms

About my waist, and lay thy lips to mine.

O Greeks who have found out cruelties un-Greek,

152 EURIPIDES.

Why slay this child who is guiltless wholly of wrong ?
Tyndareus' daughter — no Zeus' daughter thou ! [760
Nay, but of many sires I name thee born :
Child of the Haunting Curse, of Envy child,
Of Murder, Death, of all earth-nurtured plagues !
Thee never Zeus begat, I dare avouch, 765

A curse to many a Greek, barbarians many !
Now ruin seize thee, who by thy bright eyes
Foully hast wasted Phrygia's glorious plains !
Take him — bear hence, and hurl, if hurl ye will ; —
Then on his flesh feast ! For we perish now 770

By the Gods' doom, and cannot shield one child
From death. O hide this wretched body of mine,
Yea, cast into a ship. To a bridal fair
Have I attained — I, who have lost my son !

Chorus.

O hapless Troy, who hast lost unnumbered sons 775
All for one woman's sake, for one loathed couch !

Talthybius.

Come, child, from thy woeful mother's clasp
Break away : to the height of the coronal fare

Of thy towers ancestral, for thy last gasp, [780

As the doom hath decreed, nmst be rendered there.

Lay hold on him : — his should such heralding be
Who is made without pity, whose breast doth bear
A spirit more ruthless, that hateth to spare.

More than the spirit that dwelleth in me !

[^Exeunt Andromache, and Talthybius
with Astyanax.

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 153

Hecuba.

0 child, O son of mine ill-starred son,
Unrighteously reft thy life is gone

From thy mother and me ! What life shall I live ?
What do for thee, hapless one ? All we can give
Are smitings of heads, and on breasts blows rained :
These only be ours ! Woe's me for our town 790
And for thee ! What scathe is of us unattained ?
What lack we to hold us from fell destruction's nether-
most hell —

From the swift plunge down ?

Chorus.

{Str. i)

O Telamon, king of the land where the wing of the bee

flits aye round Salamis' shore, —
Who didst make thee a home in the isle with the foam

of the sea ringed round and the surges' roar.
Which over the tide looketh up to the pride of the

hallowed heights whose ridge first bore, 800

At Athena's hest, in the lordship-test, the olive
grey,
A crown heaven-high, whose radiancy bright Athens

to bind her brows hath ta'en, —
Brother-chief didst thou go with the lord of the bow,

with the son of Alkmena, over the main'

1 Ganymede, son of King Laomedon, was caught up
from earth to be cupbearer of Zeus, who gave to his father,
in recompense, a team of immortal chariot-steeds. When
the land was wasted by a dragon, the king promised these
horses to Herakles, if he would slay it, but withheld the re-
ward when the task was performed. So Herakles sailed
against Troy with a host gathered from Hellas, and des-
troyed it.

154 EURIPIDES.

Unto Ilium bound, to raze to the ground our city,

devising our Ilium's bane,

When from Hellas afar thou didst wend to the

war in the olden day,

Ant. i)

When the flower of the land from Hellas' strand he led,

whose wrath was enkindled sore
For the steeds denied ; and he stayed beside fair-
rippling Simois' flood the oar 8io
Through the paths that had plashed of the sea, and
lashed the great stern-hawsers to earth's firm floor,
And bare from the ship the bow in his grip un-
erring aye,
A deadly thing to the traitor king ; and the walls

plummet-levelled of Phoebus in vain
With the fierce red blast of the fire he cast to earth,

and he harried the Trojan plain :
Yea, twice did it fall that the coronal of Dardanus'
towers, by spear-strokes twain

Shattered and rent, all blood-besprent in ruin lay.

{Str. 2)

In vain, O thou who art pacing now with delicate feet

where the chalices shine 820

AU-golden, O Laomedon's heir.
Is the office thine to brim with the wine
The goblets of Zeus, a service fair, —
And the land of thy birth in devouring flame is rolled !
From her brine-dashed beaches a crying is heard,
Where wail her daughters, — as shrieketh the bird
O'er the nest of her brood left cold, — 830
For their lost lords some, for their children's
doom
These, those for their mothers old.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 155

Gone are the cool baths dewy-plashing,
And the courses where raced thy feet white-
flashing : —
But thou, with thy young face glory-litten
With the beauty of peace, by the throne dost
stand
Of Zeus, — and the Hellene spear hath smitten

Priam's land !

{Ant. 2)

O Love, O Love, who didst brood above Dardanian

halls in the olden days, 840

Thrilling the hearts of abiders in heaven,

Unto what high place didst thou then upraise

Troy, when to her was affinity given

With the Gods by thee ! — But the dealings of Zeus

shall my tongue

Attaint no more with the breath of blame :

But the light of Aurora, the white-winged flame

Held dear all mortals among.

With baleful beam did on Troyland gleam, 850

And her towers saw ruinward flung.

Albeit in bridal bower she cherished

A son of the land in her sight that hath perished,

A spouse whom a chariot of gold star-splendid

Ravished from earth, that his land might joy

In hope — nay, all lovingkindness is ended

Of Gods for Troy !

Enter Menelaus witJi attendants.

Menelaus,

Hail, thou fair-shining splendour of yon sun, 860

Whereby I shall make capture of my wife

156

EURIPIDES.

865

-my wife.

Helen, — for I am he that travailed sore,

I Menelaus, and the Achaian host.

Nor so much came I, as men deem, to Troy

For her, but to avenge me on the man

Who from mine halls stole — traitor guest !-

He by heaven's help hath paid the penalty.

He and his land, by Hellene spear laid low.

I come to hale the Spartan, — loth am I

To name her wife, who in days past was mine ; — 870

For in these mansions of captivity

Numbered she is with others, Trojan dames.

For they, by travail of the spear who won,

Gave her to me, to slay, or, an I would.

To slay not, but to take to Argos back.

And I was minded to reprieve from doom

Helen in Troy, but with keel-speeding oar

To bear to Greece, to yield her there to death,

Avenging all my friends in Ilium slain.

On, march to the pavilions, henchmen mine ;

Bring her, and by her murder-reeking hair

Hale forth to me : then, soon as favouring winds

Shall blow, to Hellas will we speed her on.

[Exeunt attendants.

Hecuba.

875

880

O Earth's Upbearer, thou whose throne is Earth,
Whoe'er thou be, O past our finding out,
Zeus, be thou Nature's Law, or mind of man.
To thee I pray ; for, treading soundless paths,
In justice dost thou guide all mortal things !

Menelaus.

885

How now ? — what strange prayer this unto the Gods ?

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 157

Hecuba.

Thanks, Menelaus, if thou slay thy wife ! 890

Yet shun to look, lest she enthrall thee yet.
She snareth men's eyes, she destroyeth towns,
She burneth homes, such her enchantments are.
I and thou know her— all who have suffered know.

Enter Helen, haled forth by attendants.

Helen.

O Menelaus, terror-fraught to me 895

This prelude is ; for by thy servants' hands

Forth of these tents with violence am I haled.

But, though well-nigh I know me abhorred of thee.

Fain would I ask what the decision is,

Touching my life, of thee and of the Greeks. 900

Menelaus.

No nicely-balanced vote — with one accord
Thee the host gave to me, the wronged, to slay.

Helen.

May I then plead in answer hereunto,
That, if I die, unjustly 1 shall die ?

Menelaus.

Not for debate, for slaying am I come. 905

Hecuba.

Hear her, that lacking not this boon she die,
Menelaus ; and to me vouchsafe to plead

158 EURIPIDES.

Against her. Of her evil work in Troy

Nought know'st thou : thus arrayed shall all the tale

Doom her to death beyond all hope to 'scape. 910

Menelaus.

This asks delay : yet, if she fain would speak,
Let her. For thy words' sake I grant her this,
But not for her sake, let her be assured.

Helen.

Perchance, or speak I well, or speak I ill,

Thou wilt not answer, counting me a foe. 915

Yet, as I deem — wouldst thou implead me now —

Thou wouldst accuse, so will I meet thy pleas.

Confronting accusations, thine and mine.

First, she brought forth the source of all these ills,

Who brought forth Paris : then, both Troy and me

The old king ruined, slaying not the babe [920

Alexander, baleful semblance of a torch.'

Thereafter, how befell the sequel, hear : —

Judge he became of those three Goddesses.

This guerdon Pallas offered unto him — 925

" Troy's hosts to vanquish Hellas shalt thou lead."

Lordship o'er Asia, and o'er Europe's bounds.

If Paris judged her fairest, Hera proffered.

Kypris, with rapturous praising of my beauty.

Cried, " Thine she shall be if I stand preferred 930

As Fairest." Mark what followeth therefrom : —

Kypris prevails : this boon my bridal brought

To Greece — ye are not to foreign foes enthralled,

I Hecuba, just before the birth of Paris, dreamed that
she bore a blazing torch, which set Troy on fire.

I

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 159

Nor battle-crushed, nor 'neath a despot bowed.

But I by Hellas' good-hap was undone, 935

Sold for my beauty ; and I am reproached

For that for which' I should have earned a crown !

But, thou wilt say, I shun the issue still —

For what cause I by stealth forsook thine home.

He came, with no mean Goddess at his side ; 940

He came, mine evil genius, — be his name

Paris or Alexander, which thou wilt, —

Whom, wittol thou, thou leftest in thine halls.

Sailing from Sparta to the Cretan land !

Not thee, but mine own heart, I question next — 945

What impulse stirred me from thine halls to follow

That guest, forsaking fatherland and home.

Punish the Goddess ; be thou mightier

Than Zeus, who ruleth all the Gods beside.

Yet is her slave ! — so, pardon is my due. 950

But, — since thou mightest here find specious plea, —

When Alexander dead to Hades passed,

I, of whose couch the Gods were careless now.

Ought from his halls to have fled to the Argive ships.

Even this did I essay : my witnesses 955

Gate-warders are, and watchmen of the walls,

Who found me ofttimes from the battlements

By cords to earth down-climbing privily.

Yea, my new lord — yon corpse Deiphobus, —

Kept in the Phrygians' despite his bride. 960

How then, O husband, should I justly die

By thine hand, since by force he wedded me,

And my hfe there no victor's triumph was,^

' yl/. " By those from whom."

2 Or, according to Paley— " And mine own gifts no
victor's triumph brought."

i6o EURIPIDES.

But bitter thrall ? If thou wouldst overbear

Gods, this thy wish is folly unto thee. 965

Chorus.

Stand up for children and for country, Queen !
Shatter her specious pleading ; for her words
Ring fair — a wanton's words ; foul shame is this.

Hecuba.

First, champion will I be of Goddesses,

And will convict her of a slanderous tongue. 970

Never, I ween, would Hera, or the Maid,

Pallas, have stooped unto such folly's depth,

That Hera would to aHens Argos sell,

Or Pallas bow 'neath Phrygians Athens' neck.

For sport they came and mirth in beauty's strife 975

To Ida. Why should Goddess Hera yearn

So hotly for the prize of loveliness ?

That she might win a mightier lord than Zeus ?

Or sought Athena mid the Gods a spouse,

Who of her sire, for hate of marriage, craved 980

Maidenhood ? — Charge not Goddesses with folly,

To gloze thy sin : thou cozenest not the wise.

And Kypris, say'st thou — who but laughs to hear ? —

Came with my son to Menelaus' halls !

How, could she not in peace have stayed in heaven.

And thee— Amyklae too — to Ilium brought ? [985

My son in goodlihead had never peer :

Thou sawest, and thine heart became thy Kypris !

All folly is to men their Aphrodite :

Sensual — senseless — consonant they ring ! 990

Him in barbaric bravery sawest thou

Gold-glittering, and thy senses were distraught.

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. i6i

For with scant state in Argos didst thou dwell ;

But, Sparta left afar, the Phrygians' town

Thou hopedst, tilP with gold it flowed, to flood 995

With torrent waste : Menelaus' halls sufficed

Not thee for all thine insolence of pomp.

And my son, say'st thou, haled thee hence by force !

What son of Sparta heard ? What rescue-cry

Didst thou upraise, though Kastor, yet a youth, 1000

Lived, and his brother, starward rapt not yet ?

And when to Troy thou cam'st, and on thy track

The Argives, and the strife of raining spears,

If tidings of his prowess came to thee,

Menelaus wouldst thou praise, to vex my son 1005

Who in his love such mighty rival had :

But, if the Trojans prospered, naught was he.

Still watching fortune's flight, 'twas aye thy wont

To follow her — -not virtue's path for thee !

And thou with cords wouldst steal thy liberty, loio

From the towers climbing, as one loth to stay !

Where wast thou found with noose about thy neck,

Or whetting steel, as a true-hearted wife

Had done for yearning for her spouse of old ?

Yet many a time and oft I counselled thee : — 1015

" Daughter, go forth from Troy : my sons shall wed

New brides ; and thee to the Achaian ships

Will I send secretly : so stay the war

'Twixt Greece and us." But this was gall to thee.

For thou didst flaunt in Alexander's halls, 1020

Didst covet Asia's reverent courtesies —

Proud state for thee !— And yet hast thou come forth

Costly arrayed, looked on the selfsame sky

I So Tyrrell : Paley renders, " though with gold it flowed
(already)."

Vol. II. M.

i62 EURIPIDES.

As thy wronged spouse. O wanton all-abhorred,

Who oughtest, abject, and with garments rent, 1025

Quaking with fear, with shaven head to have come,

Having regard to modesty, above

Bold shamelessness, for thy transgressions past !

Menelaus, — so to sum mine argument, — -

Crown Greece, by slaying as beseemeth thee 1030

Yon woman : so ordain to all her sisters

This law — the traitress to her lord shall die.

Chorus.

Prince, worthily of thy fathers and thine house

Punish her : show thee unto foes unflinching.

So spurn the gibe of Greece that calls thee woman. 1035

Menelaus.

Herein is thy conclusion one with mine.

That willingly she went forth from mine halls

For a strange couch ; and Kypris for vain show

Fills out her plea. Thou, to the stoners hence :

The Achaians' long toils in an hour requite 1040

Dying : so learn to put me not to shame.

Helen.

Oh, by thy knees, impute not unto me
Heaven's visitation ! Slay me not, but pardon !

Hecuba.

Thine allies whom she slew betray not thou :

For them I pray thee, and their children's sake. 1045

Menelaus.

Enough, grey queen : I give no heed to her ;

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 163

But bid mine henchmen to the galley sterns
Lead her, wherein her voyaging shall be.

Hecuba,
Oh not the same deck let her tread with thee !

Menelaus.
How, should she sink it — heavier than of old ? 1050

Hecuba.
Lover is none but loveth evermore.

Menelaus.

Nay, love but lives while lives the loved one's faith.

Yet as thou wilt it shall be : on one ship

With me she shall not step : thou counsellest well.

And, when she wins to Argos, in foul sort 1055

The foul shall die, as meet is, and shall teach

All women chastity : — not easy this ;

Yet her destruction shall with terror smite

Their folly, viler though they be than she.

\_Exit Menelaus with Helen,

Chorus.

[Str. i)
So then thy temple in Troy fair-gleaming, 1060

And thine altar of incense heavenward steaming

Hast thou rendered up to our foes Achaean,
O Zeus, and the flame of our sacrificing.
And the holy burg with its myrrh-smoke rising,

And the ivy-mantled glens Idaean
Overstreamed with the wan snow riverward-rushing.

i64 EURIPIDES.

And the haunted bowers of the World's Wall/ flushing
With the first shafts flashed through the empyrean !

{Ant. i)
Thine altars are cold ; and the blithesome calling
Of the dancers is hushed ; nor at twilight's falling
To the nightlong vigils of Gods cometh waking.
They are vanished, thy carven images golden,
And the twelve moon-feasts of the Phrygians holden.

Dost thou care, O King, I muse, heart-aching, —
Thou who sittest on high in the far blue heaven
Enthroned, — that my city to ruin is given,

That the bands of her strength is the fire-blast break-
ing ? 1080

{Str. 2)
O my beloved, O husband mine.

Thou art dead, and unburied thou wanderest
yonder,
Unwashen ! — but me shall the keel thro' the brine
Waft, onward sped by its pinions of pine,

To the horse-land Argos, where that stone wonder
The Cyclop walls cleave the clouds asunder.
And our babes at the gates, in a long, long line,
Cling to their mothers with wail and with weeping
that cannot avail — logo

" O mother," they moan, " alone, alone, woe's me !
the Achaeans hale

Me from thy sight — from thine —
To the dark ship, soon o'er the surge to be riding,
To Salamis gliding.
To the hallowed strand.

I The range of Mount Ida, the supposed boundary of the
world on the east (Paley).

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 165

Or the Isthmian hill 'twixt the two seas swelling,
Where the gates of the dwelling
Of Pelops stand ! "

(Ant. 2)
Oh that, when, far o'er the mid-sea sped, iioo

Menelaus' galley is onward sailing,
On the midst of her oars might the thunderbolt

dread
Crash down, the Aegean's wildfire red.

Since from Ilium me with weeping and wailing
Unto thraldom in Hellas hence is he haling :
And lo, Zeus' daughter, like maid unwed,'
Hath joy of her mirrors of gold, and her state as of

right doth she hold !
Nevermore may he come to Laconia, home of his sires :
be his hearth aye cold ! [ijio

Never Pitane's streets may he tread.
Nor the Goddess's temple brazen-gated,
With the evil-fated
For his prize, who for shame
Unto all wide Hellas's sons and daughters.
And for woe to the waters
Of Simoi's, came !

Woe's me, woe's me !
Afflictions new, ere the old be past.
On our land are falling ! Behold and see,
Ye wives of the Trojans, horror-aghast, 11 20

Dead Astyanax, by the Danaans cast
From the towers, slain pitilessly.

I The Chorus have no faith in Menelaus' intention of
putting Helen to death, but foresee that she will be (as
actually befell) restored to her old position.

i66 EURIPIDES.

Enter Talthybius, with atteiidafits bearing corpse of
Astyanax on Hector s shield.

Talthybius.

One galley's oars yet linger, Hecuba,

Ready to waft unto the Phthian shores

The remnant of Achilles' scion's spoils. 1125

But Neoptolemus' self hath sailed, who heard

Tidings of wrong to Peleus, how the seed

Of Pelias, even Akastus, exiles him.

Wherefore, too hasty to vouchsafe delay,

He went, Andromache with him, who hath drawn 1130

At her departing many a tear from me,

Wailing her country, crying her farewell

To Hector's tomb. And she besought the prince

To grant his corpse a grave who from the walls

Hurled down, thine Hector's child, gave up the ghost.

And the Achaians' dread, this brass-lapped shield, [11 35

Wherewith his father fenced his body round,

She prayed him not to Peleus' hearth to bear,

Nor to Andromache's new bridal bower,

A grief to see for her that bare the dead ; 1140

But, in the stead of cedar chest or stone.

In this to entomb her child, and to thine arms

To give, to shroud the corpse with robes, and crown

With wreaths, as best thou canst of these thy means,

Since she hath gone, and since her master's haste 1145

Withheld herself from burying her child.

I therefore, when thou hast arrayed the corpse.

Will heap his mound, and set thereon a spear.

Thou then with speed perform the task assigned.

Sooth, I have lightened of one toil thine hands ; 11 50

For, as I passed o'er yon Skamander's streams.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 167

I bathed the corpse, and cleansed the wounds thereof.
Now will I go, and dig for him a grave.
That, shortened so, thy work and mine withal, [1155
To one end wrought, may homeward speed the oar.

\_Exit Talthybius.

Hecuba.

Set Hector's shield fair-rounded on the earth,

A woeful sight unsweet for me to see.

O ye who more in spears than wisdom boast,

Fearing this child, Achaians, why have ye wrought

Murder unheard-of? — lest he raise again 1160

Our fallen Troy ? So then ye were but naught

When, even while Hector triumphed with the spear.

And countless hands struck with him, still we perished ;

But now, Troy taken, all the Phrygians slain,

Ye dread this little child ! Out on the fear 1165

Which feareth, having never reasoned why !

Ah darUng, what ill death is come on thee !

Hadst thou for Troy been slain, when thou hadst

known
Youth, wedlock's bhss, and godlike sovereignty,
Blest wert thou — if herein may aught be blest. 11 70
But now — one glimpse, one fancy's grasp, O child,
Then, all unknown, untasted, that was thine !^

I This passage is a great crux of commentators. Her-
mann's interpretation may be rendered —

" But now thy soul knows not that once it saw
And marked them : thine they were, unused of thee."
implying that only experiences, not mere hopes or expect-
ations, formed the spirit's treasures of memory in Hades.

Others would put a comma after re, so rendering —
" But now — far off thou hast seen and marked them, child.
Not living known nor touched thine heritage."

i68 EURIPIDES.

Poor child, how sadly thine ancestral walls,
Bulwark of Loxias/ from thine head have shorn
The curls that oft thy mother softly smoothed 1175
And kissed, wherefrom through shattered bones forth

grins
Murder — a ghastliness I cannot speak !
O hands, how sweet the likeness to your sire
Ye keep ! — limp in your sockets, lo, ye lie-
Dear lips, that babbled many a child-boast once, 11 80
Ye are dead ! — 'Twas false, when, bounding to my

robes,
" Mother," thou saidst, " full many a curl I'll shear
For thee, and troops of friends unto thy tomb
Will lead, to cry the loving last farewell."
Not I of thee, but thou, the young, of me, — 11 85

Old, homeless, childless, — wretched corpse, art buried.
Ah me, the kisses, and my nursing-cares,
Thy love-watched slumbers, ^ — gone ! What word, ah

what.
Shall bard inscribe of thee upon thy tomb ?
" This child the Argives murdered in time past iigo
Through fear " — the inscription shall be Hellas' shame !
Yet thou, of thy sire's wealth though nought thou hast,
Shalt in thy burial have his brazen targe.
Ah shield that keptest Hector's goodly arm
Safe, thine heroic warder hast thou lost ! 1195

How dear his imprint on thine handle lies !
Dear stains of sweat upon thy shapely rim,
Which oft mid battle's toil would Hector drip

1 Built by Apollo.

2 Or, reading vttvol tolvitvol, — " my broken slumbers" —
disturbed by infant cries. Cf. Aeschylus, Clio. 751. Tyrrell
suggests avTTvoi re kXIi^ui, " the sleepless nights."

THE DA UGHTERS OF TROY. 169

Down from his brow, as to his beard he pressed thee !

Come, bring ye adorning for the hapless corse 1200

Of that ye have : our fortune gives no place

For rich array : mine all shalt thou receive.

A fool is he, who, in prosperity

Secure, rejoices : fortune, in her moods,

Even as a madman, hither now, now thither, 1205

Leaps, and none prospers ever without change.

Chorus.

Lo, ready to thine hand, from spoils of Troy,
They bring adornings on the dead to lay.

Hecuba.

Child, not for victory with steeds or bow

Over thy fellows, — customs which thy folk 12 10

Honour, yet not unto excess pursue, —

The mother of thy sire adorneth thee

With gauds from wealth once thine, now reft from thee

By Helen god-accurst : she hath slain withal

Thy life, and brought to ruin all thine house. 12 15

Chorus.

Alas and alas ! Mine heart dost thou wring, dost thou

wring
Who in days overpast wert our city's mighty king !

Hecuba.

In that wherein thou shouldst have clad thy form
For marriage, wedding Asia's loveliest,
Splendour of Phrygian robes, I swathe thee now. 1220
And thou, who wast the glorious mother once

lyo EURIPIDES.

Of countless triumphs, Hector's shield beloved,
Receive thy wreath : thou with the dead shalt die
Undying, worthy of honour, far beyond
The arms Odysseus, crafty villain, won. 1225

Chorus.

Alas for thee!
O child, our sorrow, the earth shall now
Receive thee to rest ! — wail, mother, thou !

Hecuba.

O misery !

Chorus.

Wail the keen for the dead !

Hecuba.

Ah me, ah me ! 1230

Chorus.

Ah griefs whose remembrance shall ne'er be fled !

Hecuba.

Some of thy wounds with linen bands I bind,
A sorry leech, in name but not in deed ;
Some shall thy father tend amongst the dead.

Chorus.

Smite thou, O smite with thine hand ! 1235

Rain blows of thine hand on thine head — alas !

Hecuba.

O daughters beloved of my land —

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 171

Chorus.

Speak the word through thy lips that is panting to pass.

Hecuba.

For nought the Gods took thought, save woes to
me 1240

And Troy, above all cities loathed of them.
In vain we sacrificed ! Yet, had not God
O'erthrov/n us so, and whelmed beneath the earth, ^
We had faded fameless, never had been hymned
In lays, nor given song-themes to the after-time. 1245
Pass on, lay ye in a wretched tomb the corpse ;
For now it hath the garlands, dues of death.
Yet little profit have the dead, I trow,
That gain magnificence of obsequies.
'Tis but the living friends' vaingloriousness. 1250

[The corpse is carried to burial.

Chorus.

Ah me ! ah me !
Ah hapless mother, what goal she hath won^
Of all the proud hopes builded on thee !
O thou who wert born to exceeding bliss.

Thou hero's son.
What awful death for thy dying is this ! 1255

What ho ! what ho !
W^hom see I on Ilium's tower-crowned wall,

I From (unsatisfactory) conjectural reading. Original
hopelessly lost.

- Or, retaining KareKvaxf/e of MSS. — "in wrack undone
Are shattered her proud " etc.

172 EURIPIDES.

And the tossing torches fierily glow
In the hands of them ? — some new evil, I trow,
Shall on Troy-town fall.

Enter Talthybius above, with soldiers bearing torches.

Talthybius.

Captains, to whom the charge is given to fire 1260

This city of Priam, idle in your hands

Keep ye the flame no more : thrust in the torch.

That, having low in dust laid Ilium's towers.

We may with gladness homeward speed from Troy,

Ye — twofold aspect this one hest shall bear — 1265

Children of Troy, forth, soon as loud and clear

The chieftains of the host the trumpet sound.

To yon Greek ships, for voyage from the land.

And thou, O grey-haired dame most evil-starred,

Follow. These from Odysseus come for thee ; 1270

For the lot sends thee forth the land, his slave.

Hecuba.

Ah wretched I ! — the uttermost is this,

The deepest depth of all my miseries ;

I leave my land ; my city is aflame !

O aged foot, sore-striving press thou on 1275

That I may bid mine hapless town farewell.

O Troy, midst burgs barbaric erst so proud.

Soon of thy glorious name shalt thou be spoiled.

They fire thee, and they hale us forth the land.

Thralls ! O ye Gods ! — why call I on the Gods ? 1280

For called on heretofore they hearkened not.

Come, rush we on her pyre, for gloriously

So with my blazing country should I die.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 173

Talthybius.

Hapless, distraught art thou of thine afflictions !
Hence hale her — spare not. To Odysseus' hand 1285
Her must ye give, and lead to him his prize.

Hecuba.

{Sir. i)

Woe is me ! ah for the woes that be mine !
Kronion, O Phrygian Lord, our begetter, our father.
Dost thou see how calamity's tempests around us gather.

Unmerited doom of Dardanus' line ? 1290

Chorus.

He hath seen : yet is Troy, the stately city,
A city no more, destroyed without pity.

Hecuba.

(Ant. i)
Woe \s me, woe, and a threefold woe !
Ilios is blazing, the ramparts of Pergamus crashing
Down, with the homes of our city, mid flames far-
flashing
Over their ruins, a furnace-glow !
With its wide-winged blackness the heaven's face

covering, ,

O'er our spear-stricken land is the smoke-cloud
hovering. 1300

(Mesode.)
In madness of ruin-rush earthward they reel,
Our haUs, 'neath the fire and the foemen's steel.

Hecuba.

{Str. 2)

Hear, children, O hearken your mother's crying !

174 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

To the dead dost thou wail — can they hear thine
entreating ?

Hecuba.

Low on the ground are mine old limbs lying,
And mine hands, and mine hands on the earth
are beating !^

Chorus.

Earthward my knee, as I follow thee, bows,
As I cry to the dweller in Hades' House,
To mine hapless spouse.

Hecuba.

I am haled — I am borne —

Chorus. >

Sorrow rings in thy cry ! 1310

Hecuba.

From my land unto mansions of slavery.
O hapless I !
O Priam, O Priam, slain without tomb,
Without friend, nought, nought dost thou know of
my doom !

Chorus.

For the blackness of death hath shrouded the eyne
Of the righteous by hand of the impious slain.

I This was done in invocation of the dead, as though to
excite their attention.

THE DAUGHTERS OF TROY. 175

Hecuba.

O fanes of the Gods, dear city mine !

Chorus.

Woe ! — wail the refrain !

Hecuba.

{Ant. 2)

The death-flame, the spear, in your midst have

dominion, —

Chorus.

Swift-falHng to earth your memorial shall vanish, —
Hecuba.

And the dust, o'er the welkin wide-stretching its
pinion, 1320

Mine eyes from the home of my yearning shall
banish.

Chorus.

And the name of my land shall be heard not, and

wide
Shall her children be scattered ; no more doth

abide

Troy's woeful pride.

Hecuba.

Did ye mark — did ye hear ?

Chorus.

Crashed Pergamus^ down !

I The citadel of Troy.

176 EURIPIDES.

Hecuba.

The earthquake thereof shall engulf the town ! —

O sorrow's crown !
O tottering, tottering limbs, upbear
My steps ; to the life of bondage fare. 1330

Chorus.

O hapless Troy ! — Yet down to the strand

And the galleys Achaian thy feet must strain.

Hecuba.

O land — of my children the nursing-land !

Chorus.

Woe ! — wail the refrain !

[Exeunt omnes.

ELECTRA,

Vol. II.

N

ARGUMENT.

When Agamemnon returned home from the taking of
Troy, his adulterous wife Klytemnestra, with help of
her paramour Aegisthus, murdered him as he entered
the silver hath in his palace. They sought also to slay
his young son Orestes, that no avenger might be left
alive ; hut an old servant stole Jiim away, and took him
out of the land, unto Phocis. There was he nurtured
by king StropJiius, and Pylades the king's son loved
him as a brother. So Aegisthus dwelt with Klytem-
nestra, reigning in Argos, where remained now of Aga-
memnon's seed Electra his daughter only. And these
twain marked how Electra grew up in hate and scorn of
them, indignant for her father's murder, and fain to
avenge him. Wherefore, lest she should wed a prince,
and persuade husband or son to accomplish her heart's
desire, they bethought them how they should forestall this
peril. Aegisthus indeed woidd have slain her, yet by the
queen s counsel forebore, and gave her in marriage to
a poor yeoman, who dwelt far from the city, as thinking
that from peasant husband and peasant children there
should be nought to fear. Howbeit this man, being full of
loyalty to the mighty dead and reverence for blood royal,

behaved himself to her as to a queen, so that she con-
tinued virgin in his house all the days of her adversity.
Now when Orestes was grown to man, he journeyed
with Py lades his friend to Argos, to seek out his sister,
and to devise how he might avenge his father, since by
the oracle of Apollo he was commanded so to do.

And herein is told the story of his coming, and how
brother and sister were made known to each other, and
how they fulfilled the oracle in taking vengeance on
tyrant and adulteress.

DRAMATIS PERSONS.

Peasant, wedded in name to Electra.
Electra, daughter of Agamemnon.
Orestes, son of Agamemnon.
Pylades, sow of Strophius king of Phocis.
Klytemnestra, murderess of her husband Agamemnon.
Old Man, ottce servant of Agamemnon.
Messenger, servant of Orestes.

The Twin Brethren, Kastor and Pollux, sons of Zeus.
Chorus, consisting of women of Argos.

Attendants of Orestes and Pylades; handmaids of Klytemnestra.
Scene: — Before the Peasant's cottage on the borders of
Argolis.

ELECTRA.

Enter Peasant from the cottage.

Peasant.

Hail, ancient Argos, streams of Inachus,

Whence, with a thousand galleys battle-bound,

To Troyland's shore King Agamemnon sailed,

And, having slain the lord of Ilian land,

Priam, and taken Dardanus' burg renowned, 5

Came to this Argos, and on her high fanes

Hung up unnumbered spoils barbarian.

In far lands prospered he ; but in his home

Died by his own wife Klytemnestra's guile.

And by Aegisthus' hand, Thyestes' son. 10

So, leaving Tantalus' ancient sceptre, he

Is gone, and o'er the realm Aegisthus reigns,

Having the king's wife, child of Tyndareus.

Of those whom Troyward bound he left at home.

The boy Orestes and the maid Electra, 15

One his sire's foster-father stole away,

Orestes, doomed to die by Aegisthus' hand,

And Phocis-ward to Strophius sent, to rear :

But in her father's halls Electra stayed.

Till o'er her mantled womanhood's first flush, 20

And Hellas' princes wooing asked her hand.

i82 EURIPIDES.

Aegisthus then, in fear lest she should bear

To a prince a son, avenger of Agamemnon,

Kept her at home, betrothed her unto none.

But, since this too with haunting dread was fraught, 25

Lest she should bear some noble a child of stealth,

He would have slain her ; yet, how cruel soe'er,

Her mother saved her from Aegisthus' hand ; —

A plea she had for murder of her lord,

But feared to be abhorred for children's blood : — 30

Wherefore Aegisthus found out this device :

On Agamemnon's son, who had fled the land.

He set a price, even gold to whoso slew ;

But to me gives Electra, her to have

To wife, — from sires Mycenian sprung indeed 35

Am I, herein I may not be contemned ;'

Noble my line is, I in this world's goods

Am poor, whereby men's high descent is marred, —

To make his fear naught by this spouse of naught.

For, had she wed a man of high repute, 40

Agamemnon's slumbering blood-feud had he waked ;

Then on Aegisthus vengeance might have fallen.

But never I — Kypris my witness is —

Have shamed her couch : a virgin is she yet.

Myself think shame to take a prince's child 45

And outrage — I, in birth unmeet for her !

Yea, and for him I sigh, in name my kin.

Hapless Orestes, if to Argos e'er

He come, and see his sister's wretched marriage.

If any name me fool, that 1 should take 50

A young maid to mine home, and touch her not.

Let him know that he meteth chastity

By his own soul's base measure — base as he.

J Or, "gainsaid " (Keene),

ELECTRA. 183

Enter Electra, with a water-jar upon her head.

Electra.

Hail, black-winged Night, nurse of the golden stars,

Wherein this pitcher poised upon mine head 55

I bear, to bring the river's fountain-flow, —

Not for that of constraint I am bowed to this,

But to show Heaven Aegisthus' tyranny,

And wail to the broad welkin for my sire.

For mine own mother, Tyndareus' baleful child, 60

Thrust me from home, for grace to this her spouse.

And, having borne Aegisthus other sons,

Thrusteth aside Orestes' rights and mine.

Peasant.

Why toil'st thou thus, O hapless, for my sake.

Nor dost refrain from labour, — thou of old 65

Royally nurtured, though I bid thee so ?

Electra.

Kind I account thee even as the Gods,

Who in mine ills hast not insulted me.

High fortune this, when men for sore mischance

Find such physician as I find in thee. 70

I ought, as strength shall serve, yea, though forbid.

To ease thy toil, that lighter be thy load,

And share thy burdens. Work enow without

Hast thou : beseems that I should keep the house

In order. When the toiler cometh home, 75

'Tis sweet to find the household fair-arrayed.

Peasant.
If such thy mind, pass on : in sooth not far

i84 EURIPIDES.

The spring is from yon cot. I at the dawn

Will drive my team afield and sow the glebe.

None idle — though his lips aye prate of Gods — 80

Can gather without toil a livehhood.

[Exeunt Peasant and Electra.
Enter Orestes and Pylades.

Orestes.

Pylades, foremost thee of men I count

In loyalty, love, and friendship unto me.

Sole of Orestes' friends, thou honouredst me

In this my pHght, wronged foully by Aegisthus, 85

Who, with my utter-baneful mother, slew

My sire. At Phoebus' oracle-hest' I come

To Argos' soil, none privy thereunto,

To pay my father's murderers murder-wage.

This night o'erpast to my sire's tomb I went ; 90

There tears I gave and offerings of shorn hair.

And a slain sheep's blood poured upon the grave,

Unmarked of despot-rulers of this land.

And now I set not foot within their walls.

But blending two assays in one I come 95

To this land's border, — that to another soil

Forth I may flee, if any watch and know me ;

To seek withal my sister, — for she dwells

In wedlock yoked, men say, nor bides a maid, —

To meet her, for the vengeance win her help, 100

And that which passeth in the city learn.

Now — for the Dawn uplifteth her bright eyne —

Step we a httle from this path aside.

' XP^o-T7?ptW (Barnes). Others read /AwrT^piW, " From
PhcEbus' mystic shrine."

ELECTRA. 185

Haply shall some hind or some bondswoman

Appear to us, of whom we shall enquire 105

If in some spot hereby my sister dwell.

Lo, yonder I discern a serving-maid

Who on shorn head her burden from the spring

Bears : sit we down, and of this bondmaid ask,

If tidings haply we may win of that 110

For which we came to this land, Pylades.

[^Orestes and Pylades retire to rear.

Re-enter Electra.

Electra.

{Str. i)
Bestir thou, for time presses, thy foot's speed ;

Haste onward, weeping bitterly.
I am his child, am Agamemnon's seed, —

Alas for me, for me !
And I the daughter Klytemnestra bore —

Tyndareus' child, abhorred of all ; —
And me the city-dwellers evermore

Hapless Electra call.
Woe and alas for this my lot of sighing, 120

My life from consolation banned !
O father x\gamemnon, thou art lying
In Hades, thou whose wife devised thy dying —
Her heart, Aegisthus' hand.

{Mesode.)
On, wake once more the selfsame note of grieving :
Upraise the dirge of tears that bring relieving.

{Ant. i)
Bestir thou, for time presses, thy foot's speed ;

Haste onward weeping bitterly.
Ah me, what city sees thee in thy need,

Brother ? — alas for thee ! 130

i86 EURIPIDES.

In what proud house hast thou a bondman's place,

Leaving thy woeful sister lone
Here in the halls ancestral of our race

In sore distress to moan ?
Come, a Redeemer from this anguish, heeding

My desolation and my pain :
Come Zeus, come Zeus, the champion of a bleeding
Father most foully killed — to Argos leading

The wanderer's feet again.

{Sti: 2)
Set down this pitcher from thine head : 140

Let me prevent the morn
With wailings for a father dead.

Shrieks down to Hades borne,
Through the grave's gloom, O father, ringing :
Through Hades' hall to thee I call.
Day after day my cries outflinging ;
And aye my cheeks are furrowed red
With blood by rending fingers shed.
Mine hands on mine head smiting fall —
Mine head for thy death shorn.

(Mesode.)
Rend the hair grief-defiled ! 150

As swan's note, ringing wild

Where some broad stream still-stealeth,
O'er its dear sire outpealeth.
Mid guileful nets who lies
Dead — so o'er thee the cries
Wail, father, of thy child,

{Afit. 2)
Thee, on that piteous death-bed laid

When that last bath was o'er !
Woe for the bitter axe-edge swayed.

Father, adrip with gore ! 160

ELECTRA. 187

Woe for the dread resolve, prevailing
From Ilion to draw thee on
To her that waited thee — not haiHng
With chaplets ! — nor with wreaths arrayed
Wast thou ; but with the falchion's blade
She made thee Aegisthus' sport, and won
That treacherous paramour.

Enter Chorus.

Chorus.

{Str. 3)
Atreides' child, Electra, I have come

Unto thy rustic home.
One from Mycenae sped this day is here,

A milk-fed mountaineer. 170

Argos proclaims, saith he, a festival

The third day hence to fall ;
And unto Hera's fane must every maid

Pass, in long pomp arrayed.

Electra.

Friends, not for thought of festal tide,
Nor carcanet's gold-gleaming pride

The pulses of my breast are leaping ;

Nor with the brides of Argos keeping
The measure of the dance, my feet
The wreathed maze's time shall beat : 180

Nay, but with tears the night I greet,

And wear the woeful day with weeping.
Look on mine hair, its glory shorn.

The disarray of mine attire :

Say, if a princess this beseemeth,

i88 EURIPIDES.

Daughter to Agamemnon born,
Or Troy, that, smitten by my sire,

Of him in nightmare memories dreameth ?

Chorus.

{Ant. 3)
Great is the Goddess :' borrow then of me 190

Robes woven cunningly.
And jewels whereby shall beauty fairer shine.

Dost think these tears of thine,
If thou give honour not to Gods, shall bring

Thy foes low ? — reverencing
The Gods with prayers, not groans, shalt thou
obtain

Clear shining after rain,

Electra.

No God regards a wretch's cries, 1

Nor heeds old flames of sacrifice

Once on my father's altars burning. 200

Woe for the dead, the unreturning !
Woe for the living, homeless now.
In alien land constrained, I trow
To serfdom's board in grief to bow —

That hero's son afar sojourning !
In a poor hovel I abide,

An exile from my father's door.

Wasting my soul with tears outwelling.
Mid scaurs of yon wild mountain-side : — 210

My mother with her paramour

In murder-bond the while is dwelling !

I Therefore her festival is not lightly to be neglected.

ELECTRA. 189

Chorus.

Of many an ill to Hellas and thine house
Was Helen, sister of thy mother, cause.

Orestes and Pylades approach.

Electra.

Woe's me, friends ! — needs must I break off my moan !
Lo, yonder strangers ambushed nigh the house [215
Out of their hiding-place are rising up !
With flying feet — thou down the path, and I
Into the house, — flee we from evil men !

Orestes (intercepting her).

Tarry, thou hapless one : fear not mine hand. 220

Electra.
Phoebus, I pray thee that I be not slain !

Orestes (extending his hand to hers).
God grant I slay some more my foes than thee !

Electra.
Hence ! — touch not whom beseems thee not to touch !

Orestes.
None is there whom with better right I touch.

Electra.
Why sword in hand waylay me by mine house ? 225

Orestes.
Tarry and hear : my words shall soon be thine.

igo EURIPIDES.

Electra.
I stand, as in thy power ; — the stronger thou.

Orestes.
I come to bring thee tidings of thy brother.

Electra.
Friend — friend ! — and liveth he, or is he dead ?

Orestes.
He liveth : first the good news would I tell. 230

Electra.
Blessings on thee, for meed of words most sweet !

Orestes.
This blessing to us twain I give to share.

Electra.
What land hath he for weary exile's home ?

Orestes.
Outcast, he claims no city's citizenship.

Electra.
Not — surely not in straits for daily bread ? 235

Orestes.
That hath he : yet the exile helpless is.

Electra.
And what the message thou hast brought from him ?

ELECTRA. 191

Orestes.
Liv'st thou ? — he asks ; and, hving, what thy state ?

Electra.
Seest thou not how wasted is my form ? —

Orestes.
So sorrow-broken that myself could sigh. 240

Electra.
Mine head withal — my tresses closely shorn.

Orestes.
Heart-wrung by a brother's fate, a father's death ?

Electra.
Ah me, what is to me than these more dear ?

Orestes.
Alas ! art thou not to thy brother dear ?

Electra.
Far off he stays, nor comes to prove his love. 245

Orestes.
Why dost thou dwell here, from the city far ?

Electra.
I am wedded, stranger — as in bonds of death.

Orestes.
Alas thy brother ! — A Mycenian lord ?

192 EURIPIDES.

Electra.
Not such to whom my sire once hoped to wed me.

Orestes.
Tell me, that hearing I may tell thy brother. 250

Electra.
In this his house from Argos far I live.

Orestes.
Delver or neatherd should but match such house !

Electra.
Poor, yet well-born, and reverencing me.

Orestes.
Now what this reverence rendered of thy spouse ?

Electra.
Never hath he presumed to touch my couch. 255

Orestes.
A vow of chastity, or scorn of thee ?

Electra.
He took not on him to insult my sires.

Orestes.
How, did he not exult to win such bride ?

Electra.
He deems that who betrothed me had not right.

ELECTRA. 193

Orestes.
I understand : — and feared Orestes' vengeance ? 260

Electra.
Yea, this : yet virtuous was he therewithal.

Orestes.
A noble soul this, worthy of reward !

Electra.
Yea, if the absent to his home return.

Orestes.
But did the mother who bare thee suffer this ?

Electra.

Wives be their husbands', not their children's friends.

[265
Orestes.

Why did Aegisthus this despite to thee ?

Electra.
That weakHngs^ of weak sire my sons might prove.

Orestes.
Ay, lest thou bear sons to avenge the wrong ?

Electra.

So schemed he — God grant I requite him yet !

I i.e. Politically and socially.
Vol. n. O.

194 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.

Knows he, thy mother's spouse, thou art maiden
still ? 270

Electra.

Nay, for by silence this we hide from him.

Orestes.

Friends, then, are these which hearken these thy
words ?

Electra.

Yea, true to keep thy counsel close and mine.

Orestes.
What help, if Argos-ward Orestes came ?

Electra.
Thou ask ! — out on thee ! — is it not full time ? 275

Orestes.
How slay his father's murderers, if he came ?

Electra.
Daring what foes against his father dared.

Orestes.

And with him wouldst thou, couldst thou, slay thy
mother ?

Electra.

Ay ! — ^with that axe whereby my father died !

ELECTRA. 195

Orestes.
This shall I tell him for thy firm resolve ? 280

Electra.
My mother's blood for his — then welcome death !

Orestes.
Ah, were Orestes nigh to hear that word !

Electra.
But, stranger, though I saw, I should not know him.

Orestes.
No marvel — a child parted from, a child.

Electra.
One only of my friends would know him now, — 285

Orestes.
Who stole him out of murder's clutch, men say ?

Electra.
The sometime aged child-ward of my sire.

Orestes.
And thy dead father — hath he found a tomb ?

Electra.
Such tomb as he hath found, flung forth his halls !

Orestes.
Ah me, what tale is this ! — Yea, sympathy 290

196 EURIPIDES.

Even for strangers' pain wrings human hearts.

Tell on, that, knowing, to thy brother I

May bear the joyless tale that must be heard.

Yea, pity dwells, albeit ne'er in churls,

Yet in the wise^ : — this is the penalty 295

Laid on the wise for souls too finely wrought.

Chorus.

His heart's desire, the same is also mine :

For, from the town far dwelling, nought know I

The city's sins : now fain would I too hear.

Electra.

Tell will I — if I may. Sure I may tell 300

A friend my grievous fortune and my sire's.

Since thou dost wake the tale, I pray thee, stranger.

Report to Orestes all mine ills and his.

Tell in what raiment I am hovel-housed,^

Under what squalor I am crushed, and dwell 305

Under what roof, after a palace-home ; —

How mine own shuttle weaves with pain my robes,

Else must I want, all vestureless my frame ; —

How from the stream myself the water bear ; —

Banned from the festal rite, denied the dance ; — 310

No part have I with wives, who am a maid,

No part in Kastor, though they plighted me

1 This word is used in the somewhat esoteric sense in
which it was employed by Greek thinkers to denote those
in whom the moral and aesthetic faculties, as well as the
intellectual, were cultivated to the highest point.

2 So MSS. Others would read avatvofiai, " wastes my
life away." Prof. Tucker suggests dyXa^ofiat (ironical) " I
am fair-arrayed."

ELECTRA. 197

To him, my kinsman, ere to heaven he passed :^

The while mid Phrygian spoils upon a throne

Sitteth my mother : at her footstool stand 315

Bondmaids of Asia, captives of my sire,

Their robes Idaean with the brooches clasped

Of gold : — and yet my sire's blood 'neath the roofs,

A dark clot, festers ! He that murdered him

Mounteth his very car, rides forth in state ; 320

The sceptre that he marshalled Greeks withal

Flaunting he graspeth in his blood-stained hand.

And Agamemnon's tomb is set at nought :

Drink-offerings never yet nor myrtle-spray

Had it, a grave all bare of ornament. 325

Yea, with wine drunken, doth my mother's spouse —

The glorious, as men say — leap on the grave,

And pelt with stones my father's monument ;

And against us he dares to speak this taunt :

" Where is thy son Orestes ? — bravely nigh 330

To shield thy tomb ! " So is the absent mocked.

But, stranger, I beseech thee, tell him this :

Many are summoning him, — their mouthpiece I, —

These hands, this tongue, this stricken heart of mine.

My shorn head, his own father therewithal. 335

Shame, that the sire destroyed all Phrygia's race,

And the son singly cannot slay one man.

Young though he be, and of a nobler sire !

Chorus.

But lo, yon man — thy spouse it is I name —

Hath ceased from toil, and homeward hasteneth. 340

^ Or, reading os c/AVT^o-rcvev, '' who, before he passed

To heaven, wooed me, as of kin to him."

198 EURIPIDES.

Enter Peasant.

Peasant.

How now ? What strangers these about my doors ?
For what cause unto these my rustic gates
Come they ? — or seek they me ? Beseemeth not
That with young men a wife should stand in talk.

Electra.

O kindest heart, do not suspect me thou, 345

And thou shalt hear the truth. These strangers come
Heralds to me of tidings of Orestes.
And, O ye strangers, pardon these his words.

Peasant.
What say they ? Is he man, and seeth light ?

^ Electra.

Yea, by their tale — and I mistrust it not. 350

Peasant.
Ha ! — and remembereth thy sire's wrongs and thine ?

Electra.
Hope is as yet all : weak the exile is.

Peasant.
And what word from Orestes have they brought ?

Electra.
These hath he sent, his spies, to mark my wrongs.

Peasant.
They see but part : thou haply tell'st the rest ? 355

ELECTRA. 199

Electra.

They know : hereof nought lacketh unto them.

Peasant.

Then should our doors ere this have been flung wide.
Pass ye within : for your fair tidings' sake
Receive such guest-cheer as mine house contains.
Ye henchmen, take their gear these doors within. 360
Say me not nay — friends are ye from a friend
Which come to me : for, what though I be poor,
Yet will I nowise show a low-born soul.

Orestes.

'Fore heaven, is this the man who keepeth close

Thy wedlock-secret, not to shame Orestes ? 365

Electra.

Even he, named spouse of me the hapless one.

Orestes.

Lo, there is no sure test for manhood's worth ;

For mortal natures are confusion-fraught.

I have seen ere now a noble father's son

Proved nothing-worth, seen good sons of ill sires, 370

Starved leanness in a rich man's very soul,

And in a poor man's body a great heart.

How then shall one discern 'twixt these and judge ?

By wealth ? — a sorry test were this to use.

Or by the lack of all ?— nay, poverty 375

Is plague-struck, schooling men to sin through need.^

I Cf. " Lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of
my God in vain." Proverbs, xxx, g.

aoo EURIPIDES.

To prowess shall I turn me ? — who, that looks
On spears, shall witness to the hero-heart ?
Best leave such things' to fall out as they will :
For this man is not among Argives great, 380

Nor by a noble house's name exalted.
But one of the many — proved a king of men !
Learn wisdom, ye which wander aimless, swoln
With vain imaginings : by converse judge
Men, even the noble by their daily walk. 385

For such be they which govern states aright
And homes : but fleshly bulks devoid of wit
Are statues in the market place. ^ Nor bides
The strong arm staunchher than the weak in fight ;
But this of nature's inborn courage springs. 390

But — seeing worthy is Agamemnon's son,
Present or absent, for whose sake we come, —
Accept we shelter of this roof. Ho, thralls,
Enter this house. For me the host whose heart
Leaps out in welcome, rather than the rich ! 395

Thanks for the welcome into this man's house ;
Yet fain would I it were thy brother now
That prospering led me into prosperous halls.
Yet may he come ; for Loxias' oracles
Fail not. Of men's soothsaying will I none. 400

[They enter cottage.

I i.e. Wealth, poverty, strength : these, their incidence
being independent of character, may be " disregarded quan-
tities" in our investigation. The interpretation of Paley,
Keene, and others, that it is best to dismiss the whole
problem (thus understanding raura) as insoluble, is incon-
sistent with the conclusion which immediately follows,
which is " by their fruits ye shall know them."

2 One of Euripides' contemptuous references to the fine-
looking, but brainless, athletes, who were held in higher
honour than, in his opinion, they deserved.

ELECTRA. 20I

Chorus.

Now, more than heretofore, Electra, glows

Mine heart with joy. Thy fortune now, though late

Advancing, haply shall be stablished fair.

Electra.

Poor man, thou know'st thine house's poverty.
Wherefore receive these guests too great for thee ? 405

Peasant.

How ?— an they be of high birth, as they seem.
Will they content them not with little or much ?

Electra.

Since then thou so hast erred, and thou so poor.

Go to the ancient fosterer of my sire.

Who on the banks of Tanaiis, which parts 410

The Argive marches from the Spartan land.

An outcast from our city, tends his flocks.

Bid him to wend home straightway, and to come^

And furnish somewhat for the strangers' meat.

He shall rejoice, yea, render thanks to heaven, 415

To hear how lives the child whom once he saved.

For of my mother from my father's halls

Nought should we gain : our tidings should we rue

If that wretch heard that yet Orestes lives.

Peasant.

If thus thou wilt, thy message will I bear 420

To yon grey sire : but pass thou in with speed,

I Weil reads twvS' d^tyyoteVwr, " since hither these have
fared."

202 EURIPIDES.

And there make ready. Woman's will can find

Many a thing shall eke the feasting out.

Yea, and within the house is store enough

To satisfy for one day these with meat. 425

In such things, when my thoughts turn thitherward,

I mark what mighty vantage substance hath.

To give to guests, to medicine the body

In sickness : but for needs of daily food

Not far it reacheth. Each man, rich and poor, 430

Can be but filled, when hunger is appeased.

[^Exit Peasant. Electra enters the cottage.

Chorus.

{Str. i)
O galleys renowned, by your myriad-sweeping

Oars hurled high on the Trojan strand.

Whom the Sea-maids followed, with dances sur-
rounding
Your dusky prows, when the dolphin was bounding
Around them, bewitched by your music, and leaping
In sinuous rapture on every hand.
Escorting Achilles, the fieetfoot son
Of Thetis, with King Agamemnon on
Unto where broad Simois, seaward-creeping 440

Rippled and glittered o'er Trojan sand.

{Ant. i)
And the Sea-maids fleeted by shores Euboean
From the depths where the golden anvils are
Of the Fire-god, a hero's harness bearing —
Over Pelion, over the wild spurs faring
Of Ossa, over the glens Nymphsean ;

From the watchtower-crags outgazing afar

They sought where his father, the chariot-lord.
Fostered for Thetis a sea-born ward.

ELECTRA. 203

A light for Hellas, a victory-paean, 450

The fleetfoot help to the Atreids' war.

{Str. 2)
Of a farer from Ilium heard I the story.

Who had stepped to the strand in the Nauplian haven,
Heard, O Thetis' son, of thy buckler of glory,

Of the blazonry midst of the round of it graven,

Whose god-fashioned tokens of terror made craven
The hearts of the Trojans in battle adread, —

How gleamed on the border that compassed its
splendour
Perseus, on sandals swift-winged as he fled 460

Bearing throat-severed the Gorgon-fiend's head,

While Maia's son, Prince of the Fields, for defender,

Herald of Zeus, at his side ever sped.

{Ant. 2)

And flamed in the midst of the buckler outblazing

The orb of the Sun-god, his heaven-track riding
On the car after coursers wing-wafted on-racing.

And therein were the stars in their sky-dance gliding,

The Pleiads and Hyades, evil-betiding
To Hector, for death in his eyes did they fling.

On the golden-forged helmet were Sphinxes, bearing
In their talons the victim that minstrels sing. [470

On the corslet his bosom encompassing

The fire-breathing lioness rushed, up-glaring
At the winged steed trapped by Peirene's spring.'

[Epode.)
And battle-steeds pranced on his falchion of slaughter ;2

O'er their shoulders was floating the dark dust-cloud : —

' Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, attacking the
Chimsera.

2 Reading aopt S'ez/ ^oi'to). Carved probably on the
scabbard.

204 EURIPIDES.

And thou slewest the chieftain. O Tyndareus' daughter,

That captained such heroes, so godhke and proud !
'Twas thy bridal that slew him, O thou false-hearted !

Therefore the Dwellers in Heaven shall repay

Death unto thee in the on-coming day.
I shall see it — shall see when the life-blood hath started

From thy neck at the kiss of the steel that shall slay !

Enter Old Man.

Old Man.

Where shall the princess, my young mistress, be,

Agamemnon's daughter, nursed erewhile of me ?

How steep ascent hath she to this her home

For mine eld-wrinkled feet to attain thereto ! 490

Howbeit to those I love must I drag on

Mine age-bowed spine, must drag my tottering knees.

Daughter, — for now I see thee at thy door, —

Lo, I am come : I bring thee from my flocks

A suckling lamb, yea, taken from the ewe, 495

Garlands, and cheeses from the presses drawn.

And this old treasure-drop of the Wine-god's boon,

Rich-odoured — scant store ; yet the weaker draught

Is turned to nectar, blent with a cup of this.

Let one bear these unto thy guests within ; 500

For with this tattered vesture am I fain

To wipe away the tears that dim mine eyes.

Electra.

Whence to thine eyes, grey sire, this sorrow-rain ?

Have mine ills wakened memories long asleep ?

Or for Orestes' exile groanest thou, 505

And for my sire, whom in thine arms of old

Thou fosteredst ? — all in vain for thee and thine !

ELECTRA . 205

Old Man.

In vain ! Yet could I not endure it so.

I turned, in coming, to his tomb aside,

There kneeling, for its desolation wept, 510

Poured a drink-offering from the skin I bear

Thy guests, and crowned the tomb with myrtle-sprays.

But — on the grave a black-fleeced ram I saw

New-slain, and blood but short time since outpoured,

And severed locks thereby of golden hair ! 515

I marvelled, daughter, who of men had dared

Draw nigh the tomb : no Argive he, I wot.

Haply thy brother hath in secret come.

And honoured so his father's grave forlorn.

Look on the tress ; yea, lay it to thine hair ; 520

Mark if the shorn lock's colour be the same :

For they which share one father's blood shall oft

By many a bodily likeness kinship show.

Electra.

Not worthy a wise man, ancient, be thy words —

To think mine aweless brother would have come, 525

Fearing Aegisthus, hither secretly.

Then, how should tress be matched with tress of hair —

That, a young noble's trained in athlete-strife,

This, womanlike comb-sleeked ? It cannot be.

Sooth, many shouldst thou find of hair like-hued, 530

Though of the same blood, ancient, never born.

Nay, but some stranger, pitying his tomb,

Shore it, or some one of this land, by stealth.

Old Man.

Set in his sandal's print thy tread, and mark

If that foot's measure answer, child, to thine. 535

2o6 EURIPIDES.

Electra.

How on a stony plain should there be made
Impress of feet ? Yea, if such print be there,
Brother's and sister's foot should never match —
A man's and woman's : greater is the male.

Old Man.

Hath he not weft of thine own loom — whereby 540
To know thy brother, if he should return — '
Wherein I stole him, years agone, from death ?

Electra.

Know'st thou not, when Orestes fled the land,

I was a child ?■ — yea, had I woven vests,

How should that lad the same cloak wear to-day, 545

Except, as waxed the body, vestures grew ?

Old Man.

Where be the strangers ? I would fain behold
And of thine absent brother question them.

Electra.

Lo, here with light foot step they forth the house.

Re-enter Orestes and Pylades.

Old Man (aside). ,,

High-born of mien : — yet false the coin may be ; 550

I So Weil. Paley translates —

" Nought is there, if thy brother should return,
Whereby to know the weft of thine own loom.
Wherein, etc."

ELECTRA. 207

For many nobly born be knaves in grain.

Yet — {aloud) to the strangers greeting fair I give.

Orestes.

Greeting, grey sire ! Electra, of thy friends
Who hath this time-worn wreck of man to thrall ?

Electra.
This, stranger, was my father's fosterer. 555

Orestes.
How say'st thou ? — this, who stole thy brother hence ?

Electra.
Even he who saved him, if he liveth yet.

Orestes.

Why looks he on me, as who eyes the stamp
On silver ? — likening me to any man ?

Electra.
Joying perchance to see Orestes' friend. 560

Orestes.
A dear friend he : — yet wherefore pace me round ?

Electra.
I also marvel, stranger, seeing this.

Old Man.
Daughter Electra — princess ! — pray the Gods —

2o8 EURIPIDES.

Electra.
For what — of things that are or are not ours ?

Old Man.
To win the precious treasure God reveals ! 565

Electra.
Lo, I invoke them. What wouldst say, old sire ?

Old Man.
Look on him now, child, — on thy best-beloved !

Electra.
Long have I dreaded lest thy wits be crazed.

Old Man.
I, crazed ! — who look upon thy brother, — there !

Electra.
What mean'st thou, ancient, by a word past hope ? 570

Old Man.
I see Orestes, Agamemnon's son.

Electra.
What token hast thou marked, that I may trust ?

Old Man.

A scar along his brow : — in his father's halls
Chasing with thee a fawn, he fell and gashed it.

ELECTRA. 209

Electra.
How say'st thou ? — yea, I see the mark thereof ! 575

Old Man.
Now, art thou slow to embrace thy best-beloved ?

Electra.

No, ancient, no ! By this thy sign convinced
Mine heart is. Thou who hast at last appeared,
Unhoped I hold thee !

Orestes.

Clasped at last of me !
Electra.
Never I looked for this !

Orestes.

Nor dared I hope. 580

Electra.
And art thou he ?

Orestes.

Yea, thy one champion I, —
So I draw in the net-cast that I seek :
And sure I shall ! — we must believe no more
In Gods, if wrong shall triumph over right.

Chorus.

Thou hast come, thou hast come, dawn long-delayed !
Thou hast flashed from the sky, thou hast lifted on
high

Vol IL P

2IO EURIPIDES.

O'er the land as a beacon the exile that strayed

From his father's halls, while the years dragged by

In misery.
Victory ! God unto us is bringing 590

Victory, O my friend !
Lift up thine hands and thy voice upringing
In prayers to the Gods, that, with Fortune flinging
Her shield round about him, thy brother through
Argos' gates may wend ! 595

Orestes.

Hold — the sweet bliss of greeting I receive

Of thee, hereafter must I render back.'

But, ancient — for in season hast thou come, —

Say, how shall I requite my father's slayer,

And her that shares his guilty couch, my mother? 600

Have I in Argos any loyal friend.

Or, like my fortunes, am I bankrupt all ?

With whom to league me ? — best were night, or day ?

What path shall I essay to assault my foes ?

Old Man.

Ah son, no friend hast thou in thy misfortune. 605

Nay, but this thing as treasure-trove is rare,

That one should share thine evil as thy good.

Since thou art wholly, as touching friends, bereft, —

Art even hope-forlorn, — be assured of me,

In thine own hand and fortune is thine all 610

For winning father's house and city again.

Orestes.
What shall I do then, to attain thereto ?

^ A commercial metaphor, used of a deposit to be repaid.

ELECTRA.

211

Old Man.
Thyestes' son and thine own mother slay.

Orestes.
To win this prize I come. How shall I grasp it ?

Old Man.
Through yon gates, never, how good soe'er thy will, 615

Orestes.
With guards beset is he, and spearmen's hands ?

Old Man.
Thou sayest : he fears thee, that he cannot sleep.

Orestes.
Ay so : — what followeth, ancient, counsel thou.

Old Man.
Hear me — even now a thought hath come to me.

Orestes.
Be thy device good, keen to follow I ! 620

Old Man.
Aegisthus saw I, hither as I toiled, —

Orestes.
Now welcome be the word ! Thou saw'st him — where ?

Old Man.
Nigh to these fields, by pastures of his steeds.

212 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.
What doth he ? From despair I look on hope !

Old Man.
A feast would he prepare the Nymphs, meseemed. 625

Orestes.
For nursing-dues of babes, or birth at hand ?

Old Man.
Nought know I, save his purposed sacrifice.

Orestes.
With guards how many ? — or alone with thralls ?

Old Man.
They only of his household ; Argives none.

Orestes.
None, ancient, who might look on me, and know ? 630

Old Man.
Thralls are they who looked never on thy face.

Orestes.
Haply my partisans, if I prevail ?

Old Man.
The bondman's wont, by happy chance for thee.

Orestes.
How then shall I make shift to approach to him ?

ELECTRA. 213

Old Man.
Pass full in view at hour of sacrifice. 635

Orestes.
Hard by the highway be his lands, I trow.

Old Man.
Thence shall he see, and bid thee to the feast.

Orestes.
A bitter fellow-feaster, heaven to help !

Old Man.
Thereafter thou take thought, as fortune falls.

Orestes.
Well hast thou said. My mother — .where is she ? 640

Old Man.
In Argos, yet shall soon attend the feast.

Orestes.
Why went not forth my mother with her lord ?

Old Man.
Fearing the people's taunts there tarried she.

Orestes.
Yea — knowing how men look askance on her.

Old Man.
Even so ; a woman for her crimes abhorred. 645

214 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.
How shall I slay together him and her ?

Electra.
Even I my mother's slaying will prepare.

Orestes.
Good sooth, for his shall Fortune smooth the path.

Electra.
This man shall minister to us in both.

Old Man.
Yea. How wilt thou contrive thy mother's death ? 650

Electra.

Go, ancient, say to Klytemnestra this —
Report me mother of a child, a male.

Old Man.
Long since delivered, or but as of late ?

Electra.
Within these ten' days — purifying's space.

Old Man.
Yet — to thy mother how doth this bring death ? 655

' Adopting the reading Se^ for Aey'. The ceremony of
purification was performed on the tenth day.

ELECTRA. 215

Electra.
At tidings of my travail will she come.

Old Man.
How ? — deem'st thou, child, she careth aught for thee ?

Electra.
Yea — even to weeping for my babes' high birth !

Old Man.
Haply : yet goalward turn I back thy speech. *

Electra.
Let her but come, and surely is she dead. 660

Old Man.
Nay then, to the very house-door let her come.

Electra.
Ay — short the bypath thence to Hades' gates !

Old Man.
Oh but to see this hour, then welcome death !

Electra.
First, ancient, then, be guide unto this man.

2 Retaining ayw. The metaphor is from the race-course,
Electra's reference to her mother's spite seems irrelevant,
so he guides her, like a horse that has swerved from the
course, in the direction of the goal, i.e., the point at issue.

2i6 EURIPIDES.

Old Man.
To where Aegisthus doeth sacrifice ? 665

Electra.
Then seek my mother, and my message tell.

Old Man.
Yea, it shall seem the utterance of thy lips.

Electra {to Orestes).
Now to thy work. Thou drewest first blood-lot.'

Orestes.
I will set forth if any guide appear.

Old Man.
Even I will speed thee thither nothing loth. 670

Orestes.2

My fathers' God, Zeus, smiter of my foes,
Pity us : pitiful our wrongs have been.

Electra.

Ah, pity them whose lineage is of thee !

Orestes.

Queen of Mycenae's altars, Hera, help !

Grant to us victory, if we claim the right. 675

1 i.e. To thy lot it falls to execute the first murder, that
of Aegisthus.

2 The Hues which follow have been variously assigned
by editors. The arrangement adopted by Keene is here
followed.

ELECTRA. 217

Electra.

Grant for our father vengeance upon these !

Orestes.

Father, by foul wrong dweller 'neath the earth,

And thou, Earth, Queen, on whom I lay mine hands,

Help, help us, these thy children best-beloved.

Electra.

Now come thou, bringing all the dead to aid, 680

All them whose spears with thee laid Phrygians low,
And all which hate defilers impious !

Orestes.

Hear'st thou, O foully-entreated of my mother ?

Electra.

Our sire hears all, I know : — but time bids forth.

And for this cause I warn thee, die he must, — 685

If thou, o'ermastered, fall a deadly fall,'

I die too ; count me then no more alive :

For I with sword twin-edged will pierce mine heart.

Now pass I in, to set in order all,

That, if there come fair tidings touching thee, 690

The house may shout its joy : but, if thou die,

Far other shall betide. Thus charge I thee.

Orestes.
All know I.

Electra.

Wherefore must thou play the man.
And ye, girls, beacon-like raise signal-cry

I Metaphor from wrestling — " art overthrown in death."

2i8 EURIPIDES.

Of this strife's issue. I will keep good watch, 695

Holding the sword aye ready in my grasp :
For never, overmastered, to my foes
Will I for vengeance-outrage yield me up.

\_Retires within cottage. Exeunt
Orestes, Pylades, and Old Mati.

Chorus.

In ancient song is the tale yet told^

How Pan, the Master of forest and mead, 700

Unearthly sweet while the melody rolled
From his pipes of cunningly-linked reed,
Did of yore from the mountains of Argos lead,
From the midst of the tender ewes of the fold,
A lamb bright-fleeced with the splendour of gold.

From the steps of marble the herald then ;

Cried all the folk to the market-place — ■ ;

" To the gathering away, Mycenian men ! :.|

On the awesome portent press to gaze 710 t

Of the lords of the heaven-favoured race ! " ;

And with blithe acclaim the dancers came, and with
songs of praise.

(Ant. i)
And the gold-laid pavements in glorious wise
Were tapestry-spread : through street on street

I When Atreus and Thyestes, sons of Pelops, both
claimed the throne, it was decided that whichever of them
should display a divine portent should be king. A lamb
with golden fleece appeared amongst the flocks of Atreus ;
but Aerope, his wife, conveyed it to her paramour Thyestes.
Atreus, in revenge, threw Aerope into the sea, murdered
Thyestes' sons, and served their flesh up at a feast to their
father. In horror at the deed the sun turned his course
backward from west to east for one day.

ELECTRA. 219

Flashed flames of the Argives' sacrifice ;

And the voices were ringing of flutes most sweet,
Which render the Muses service meet :
Aye richer-swelhng did glad songs rise
Of the golden lamb, of Thyestes' prize.

For the nets of a love with dark guile fraught 720

O'er the soul of Atreus' bride did he fling ;
And the marvel so to his halls hath he brought,
And hath sped to the thronged folk, publishing
How his palace had gotten that strange horned
thing.
The golden-fleeced : — and the strife so ceased, and they
hailed him king,^

{Str. 2)
Then, then, in his anger arose Zeus, turning

The stars' feet back on the fire-fretted way ;
Yea, and the Sun's car splendour-burning.

And the misty eyes of the morning grey. 750

And with flash of his chariot-wheels back-flying
Flushed crimson the face of the fading day :

To the north fled the clouds with their burden

sighing ;
And for rains withheld, and for dews fast-drying
The dwellings of Ammon in faintness were yearning,
For sweet showers crying to heavens denying.

[Ant. 2)
It is told of the singers — scant credence such story.
Touching secrets of Gods, of my spirit hath won —

'■ Euripides, perhaps on artistic grouuds, perhaps as too
well known, omits the details of Atreus' horrible revenge
(given in their full loathsomeness by Aeschylus, Agam.
1590 — 1602), and passes on directly to their consequences
in the judgment of Heaven.

220 EURIPIDES.

That the Sun from that vision turned backward the
glory
Of the gold of the face of his flaming throne,

With the scourge of his wrath in affliction re-
paying 740
Mortals for deeds in their mad feuds done : —
Yet it may be the tale liveth, soul-affraying,
To bow us to Godward in lowly obeying.

0 mother of princes,' it rose not before thee

Mid thy lord's moan, staying thine hand from the
slaying !

Ha, friends !

Heard ye a great voice — or am I beguiled

Of fancy ? — like earth-muffled thunder of Zeus ?

Lo there, the gale is swelling all too plain !

Princess, come forth thine house ! — Electra, come ! 750

Enter Electra.

Electra.

Friends, what befalls ? — how doth our conflict speed ?

Chorus.

1 know but this, I hear a cry of death.

Electra.
I also hear — far off — yet oh, I hear !

Chorus.
Faint from the distance stole the cry, yet clear.

I Klytemnestra.

ELECTRA . 221

Electra.
A shriek of Argives ? — or of them I love ? 755

Chorus.
I know not : all confused rang out the strain.

Electra.
Thine answer is my death ! — why linger I ?

Chorus.
Stay, till in certainty thou learn thy fate.

Electra.
No — vanquished I^where be they, his messengers ?

Chorus.

They yet shall come ; not lightly slain are kings. 760

Enter Messenger.

Messenger.

Victory ! victory, maids Mycenian !
To all friends, tidings of Orestes' triumph !
Low lieth Agamemnon's murderer
Aegisthus : render thanks unto the Gods.

Electra.

Who art thou ? — what attests thy tidings' truth ? 765

Messenger.

Look, — dost thou know me not, — thy brother's hench-
man ?

222 EURIPIDES.

Electra.

O friend, I knew not, out of very fear,

Thy face ; but now in very sooth 1 know.

How say'st thou ? — is my sire's foul murderer dead ?

Messenger.

Dead. Twice I say it, since thou wilPst it so. 770

Electra. «

Gods ! All-seeing Justice, thou hast come at last ! j

In what wise, and by what device of death,
Slew he Thyestes' son ? I fain would know.

Messenger.

Soon as our feet from thine abode had passed,

The highway chariot-rutted entered we, 775

Where journeyed this renowned Mycenian king.

Into his watered garden had lie turned,

Plucking soft myrtle-sprays to bind his brows.

He saw, and cried, " Hail, strangers, who be ye ?

Whence journeying, and children of what land ? " 780

" Thessalians we," Orestes spake, " who seek

Alpheus, to sacrifice to Olympian Zeus."

Now when Aegisthus heard this, answered he,

" Nay, at this altar-feast ye needs must be

My guests : I sacrifice unto the Nymphs. 785

With morning shall ye rise from sleep, and speed

No less. Come, let us go into the house," —

So speaking, did he take us by the hand,

And led us in, — " ye may not say me nay."

And, when we stood within his doors, he spake : 790

" Let one with speed bring water for the guests,

ELECTRA . 223

That they may compass with cleansed hands the altar."
But spake Orestes, " In pure river-streams
It was but now we purified ourselves.
If strangers may with citizens sacrifice, 795

Ready we are, nor say thee nay, O King."
So made they end of parley 'twixt the twain. ^
Then, laying down their spears, the tyrant's guards,
His thralls, all set their hands unto the work.
Some brought the bowl of slaughter, ^ some the
maunds -J 800

The fire some kindled, and the caldrons set
Over the hearths : with tumult rang the roofs.
Then took thy mother's paramour the meal.
And thus spake, on the altars casting it :
" Nymphs of the Rocks, vouchsafe me oft, with her,
Mine home-mate Tyndareus' child, to sacrifice, [805
As now, blest, and my foes in like ill case."
Thee and Orestes meant he ; but my lord
Reversed the prayer, low-murmuring, even to win
Ancestral halls. Aegisthus from the maund 810

Took the straight blade, the calf's hair shore therewith,
And on the pure flame with his right hand cast ;
Then, when his thralls heaved shoulder-high the calf,
Severed the throat, and to thy brother spake :
" Herein, men boast, Thessalians take their pride, 815
In deftly quartering the slaughtered bull.
And taming steeds. Take thou the steel, O guest,

' Weil's iuterpretation. Paley, " So did they commune
from the rest apart " : Keene, " Such speech they spake in
hearing of us all."

2 The bowl to receive the victim's blood.

3 The baskets that held the sacred barley-meal and the
sacrificial knife.

224 EURIPIDES.

And prove the fame of the ThessaHans true."
Then grasped he a fair-wrought Dorian blade in hand,
And from his shoulder cast his graceful cloak, 820

Took Pylades for helper in his task.
And put the thralls back ; seized the calf's foot then,
And bared the v/hite flesh, stretching forth his arm,
And quicker flayed the hide than runner's feet
Twice round the turnings of the horse-course speed ;'
So opened it. Aegisthus grasped the inwards, [825
And gazed thereon. No lobe the liver had :^
The gate-vein, the gall-bladder nigh thereto.
Portended perilous scathe to him that looked.
Scowling he stared ; but straight my master asks : 830
" Why cast down, O mine host ? " "A stranger's

guile
I dread. Of all men hatefullest to me,
And foe to mine, is Agamemnon's son."
But he, " Go to : thou fear an exile's guile —
The King ! That we on flesh of sacrifice 835

May feast, let one for this of Doris bring
A Phthian knife :3 the breast-bone let me cleave."
So took, and cleft. Aegisthus grasped the inwards,
Parted, and gazed. Even as he bowed his head.
Thy brother strained himself full height, and smote 840
Down on his spine, and through his backbone's joints

1 i.e. the time it would take a foot-runner to do the half-
mile, a distance sufficiently long to be a standard distance
for a horse-race.

2 The quadrate lobe of the liver, if fully developed, would
overlap the portal vein and gall-bladder. When, as some-
times happens, it was but rudimentary, the latter were ex-
posed, and this was an evil omen.

3 A heavy cleaver, better adapted both for his ostensible
and for his real purpose.

ELECTRA. 225

Crashed. Shuddered all his frame from head to foot,
Convulsed in throes of agony dying hard.-
Straightway the thralls beholding sprang to arms, —
A host to fight with two, — but unafraid 845

Pylades and Orestes, brandishing
Their weapons, faced them : " Not a foe," he cried,
" To Argos, nor my servants, am I come !
I have avenged me on my father's slayer, —
Orestes I, the hapless ! Slay me not, 850

My father's ancient thralls ! " They, when they heard
His words, stayed spear : and recognised was he
Of an old servant, long time of the house-
Straightway a wreath upon thy brother's head
They set, with shouts rejoicing. And he comes 855
To show the head to thee — no Gorgon's this.
But whom thou hat'st, Aegisthus. Blood for blood.
Bitter repayment, to the slain hath come.

Chorus.

{Str.)
Forth to the dance, O beloved, with feet

That rapture is winging ! 860

Bounding from earth, as a fawn's, let them fleet !

Lo, thy brother comes bringing
Victory-garlands more fair than they gain
By Alpheus' flow ! As I dance, be thy strain

Of triumph outringing ! 865

Electra.

O light, O splendour of the Sun-god's steeds,
O Earth, and Night that filled my gaze till now.
Free are mine eyes now : dawn's wings open free !

2 Reading ecr^dSa^e.
Vol. II. Q.

226 EURIPIDES.

My father's slayer Aegisthus is laid low !

Come, such things as I have, my dwelling's store, 870

Let me bring forth to grace his hair, O friends,

To crown my conquering brother's head withal.

Chorus.

(Ant.)
Crown him, the conqueror ! — garlands upraise,

Thy thanksgiving-oblation !
To the dance that the Muses love forth will we pace.

Now shall rule o'er our nation [875

Her kings well-beloved whom of old she hath known ;
For the right is triumphant, the tyrant o'erthrown : —
Ring, joy's exultation !

Enter Orestes and Pylades, with attendants bearing

Aegisthus' body.

Electra.

Hail, glorious conqueror, Orestes sprung 880

Of father triumph-crowned in Ilium's war !

Receive this wreath to bind thy clustering hair.

Thou hast come home, who hast run no bootless course

In athlete-race, but who hast slain thy foe

Aegisthus, murderer of thy sire and mine. 885

And thou, his battle-helper, Pylades,

A good man's nursling, from mine hand accept

A wreath ; for in this conflict was thy part

As his : in my sight ever prosper ye !

Orestes.

The Gods account thou first, Electra, authors 890

Of this day's fortune : praise thereafter me,

ELECTRA. 227

Who am but minister of heaven and fate.

I come, who not in word, but deed, have slain

Aegisthus, and for proof for whoso will

To know, the dead man's self I bring to thee ; 895

Whom, if thou wilt, for ravin of beasts cast forth,

Or for the children of the air to rend

Impale him on a stake : thy bondman now

Is he, who heretofore was called thy lord.

Electra.
I take shame — none the less I fain would speak — goo

Orestes.
What is it ? Speak : thou hast left fear's prison-house.

Electra.
To mock the dead, lest ill-will light on me.

Orestes.
There is no man can blame thee for such cause.

Electra.
Our folk be ill to please, and censure-prone.

Orestes.

Speak, sister, what thou wilt. No terms of truce 905
Be in the feud betwixt us and this man.

Electra.

Enough — where shall reproach of thee begin ?
Where end ? Where shall the arraignment find its
midst ?

228 EURIPIDES.

Yet, morn by morn, I never wont to cease

Conning what I would tell thee to thy face, 910

If ever from past terrors disenthralled

I stood. Now am I ; and I pay the debt

Of taunts I fain had hurled at thee alive.

Thou wast my ruin, of a sire beloved

Didst orphan me and him, who wronged thee never;

Didst foully wed my mother, slew'st her lord, [915

Hellas' war-chief, — thou who ne'er sawest Troy !

Such was thy folly's depth that thou didst dream

Thou hadst wedded in my mother a true wife,

With whom thou didst defile my father's couch ! 920

Let whoso draggeth down his neighbour's wife

To folly, and then must take her for his own.

Know himself dupe, who deemeth that to him

She shall be true, who to her lord was false.

Wretched thy life was, which thou thoughtest blest : —

Thou knewest thine a marriage impious, [925

And she, that she had ta'en for lord a villain.

Transgressors both, each other's lot ye took, —

She took thy fortune, thou didst take her curse.

And through all Argos this was still thy name — 930

^' That woman's husband": none said "That man's

wife."
Yet shame is this, when foremost in the home
Is wife, not husband. Out upon the sons
That not the man's, their father's, sons are called,
Nay, but the mother's, all the city through ! 935

For, when the ignoble weddeth high-born bride.
None take account of him, but all of her.
This was thy strong delusion, blind of heart,
Through pride of wealth to boast thee some great one !
Nought wealth is, save for fleeting fellowship. 940

ELECTRA.

229

'Tis character abideth, not possessions :

This, ever-staying, lifteth up the head ;'

But wealth by vanity gotten, held of fools,

Takes to it wings ; as a flower it fadeth soon.

For those thy sins of the flesh — for maid unmeet 945

To name — I pass them by : too clear the hint !

Thou waxedst wanton, with thy royal halls,

Thy pride of goodlihead ! Be mine a spouse

Not girl-faced, but a man in mien and port.

The sons of these to warrior-prowess cleave ; 950

Those, the fair-seeming, but in dances shine.

Perish, O blind to all for which at last.

Felon convict, thou'rt punished, caitiff" thou !

Let none dream, though at starting he run well,

That he outrunneth Justice, ere he touch 955

The very goal and gain the bourn of life.

Chorus.

Dread were his deeds ; dread payment hath he made
To thee and this man. Great is Justice' might.

Orestes.

Enough : now must ye bear his corpse within,

And hide in shadow, thralls, that, when she comes, 960

My mother ere she die see not the dead.

Electra.
Hold : — turn we now unto another theme.

Orestes.
How, from Mycenai seest thou rescue come ?

■ Reading /capa for KaKa, " maketh end of ills."

230 EURIPIDES.

Electra.
Nay, but my mother, her that gave me birth.

Orestes.
Ha ! fair and full into the toils she runs. 965

Electra,
O flaunting pomp of chariots and attire !

Orestes.
What shall we do ? — our mother shall we slay ?

Electra.

How ? — hath ruth seized thee, seeing thy mother's
form ?

Orestes.
Woe!
How can I slay her — her that nursed, that bare me ?

Electra.
Even as she thy father slew and mine. 970

Orestes.
O Phoebus, folly exceeding was thine hest —

Electra.
Nay, where Apollo erreth, who is wise ?

Orestes.
Who against nature bad'st me slay my mother !

ELECTRA. 231

Electra.
How art thou harmed, avenging thine own sire ?

Orestes.
Arraigned for a mother's murder — pure ere this ! 975

Electra.
Yet impious, if thou succour not thy sire.

Orestes.
My mother for her blood must I requite.'

Electra.
And Him ! — if thou forbear to avenge a father.

Orestes.
Ha ! — spake a fiend in hkeness of the God ? —

Electra.
Throned on the holy tripod ! — I trow not. 980

Orestes.
I dare not trust this oracle's utter faith !

Electra.

Wilt thou turn craven — -be no more a man ?
Lo, I will lay the selfsame snare for her^
Whereby thou didst her spouse Aegisthus slay.

1 ix. Her avenging Furies will exact satisfaction from me.

2 Retaining MS. dXA.' ^, and t'Troo-Tjjo-w.

232 EURIPIDES.

Orestes.

I will go in. A horror I essay ! ^ — 985

Yea, horrors will achieve ! If this please Heaven,
So be it. Bitter strife, yet sweet, for me. [Enters hut.

Enter Klytemnestra in chariot, with attendants, captive

maids of Troy.

Chorus.

Hail, Queen of the Argive land !

All hail, O Tyndareus' daughter !
Hail, sister of Zeus' sons, heroes twain 990

In the glittering heavens mid stars who stand.
And their proud right this, to deliver from bane

Men tossed on the storm-vext water.
Hail ! As to the Blest, do I yield thee thy right
Of homage, for awe of thy wealth and thy bliss.
With observance^ to compass thy fortune's height

This, Queen, is the hour, even this !

Klytemnestra.

Step from the wain, Troy's daughters ; take mine hand.
That from this chariot-floor I may light down.
As the Gods' temples are with spoils adorned 1000

Of Troy, so these, the chosen of Phrygian land,

1 Keene proposes Seivcuv, and interprets, "To shield me
from one horror (i.e. the God's vengeance), Horrors will I
achieve."

2 There is a double entendre conveyed by the two meanings
of which OepaTreveadai is capable. Klytemnestra under-
stands it of court (Shaksperian " observance ") to be paid to
her high fortunes ; the Chorus, of the watchfulness which
was never so necessary as now, unavailing as it must be.

ELECTRA. 233

Have I, to countervail my daughter lost :' —
Scant guerdon, yet fair honour for mine house.

Electra.

May I not then, — the slave, the outcast I

From my sire's halls, whose wretched home is here, —

Mother, may I not take that heaven-blest hand ? [1005

Klytemnestra.

Here be these bondmaids : trouble not thyself.

Electra,

How ? — me thou mad'st thy spear-thrall, banished

home :
Captive mine house was led, and captive I,
Even as these, unfathered and forlorn. loio

Klytemnestra.

Such fruit thy father's plottings had, contrived

Against his dearest, all unmerited.

Yea, I will speak ; albeit, when ill fame

Compasseth woman, all her tongue drops gall —

As touching me,- unjustly : let men learn 1015

The truth, and if the hate be proved my due,

'Tis just they loathe me ; if not, wherefore loathe ?

Of Tyndareus was I given to thy sire —

Not to be slain, nor I, nor those I bare.

He took my child — drawn by this lie from me, 1020

That she should wed Achilles, — far from home

^ Iphigeneia, sacrificed for the Greeks' sake, who have
therefore given these as some compensation.

2 So Paley. Keene renders, " As seemeth me."

234 EURIPIDES.

To ship-thronged Aulis, laid her on the pyre,

And shore through Iphigone's' snowy throat !

Had he, to avert Mycenae's overthrow, —

To exalt his house, — to save the children left, — 1025

Slain one for many, 'twere not past forgiving.

But, for that Helen was a wanton, he

That wed the traitress impotent for vengeance,

Even for such cause murdered he my child.

Howbeit for this wrong, how wronged soe'er, 1030

I had not raged, nor had I slain my lord ; —

But to me with that prophet-maid he came,

Made her usurp my couch, and fain would keep

Two brides together in the selfsame halls.

Women be frail : sooth, I deny it not. 1035

But when, this granted, 'tis the husband errs,

Slighting his own true bride, and fain the wife

Would copy him, and find another love.

Ah then, fierce light of scandal beats on us ;

But them which show the way, the men, none blame !

Now had Menelaus from his home been stoln, [1040

Ought I have slain Orestes, so to save

My sister's lord ? How had thy sire endured

Such deed ? Should he 'scape killing then, who slew

My child, and I at his hands die for his P^ 1045

I slew him ; turned me — 'twas the only way —

Unto his foes ; for who of thy sire's friends

1 Variant for the common form Iphigeneia.

2 The argument is based on the Greek axiom, that the
son was physically the father's, the daughter the mother's,
child. Accordingly it runs—" If Agamemnon would have
been justified in killing me, had I slain his child to rescue
my sister's husband, conversely, I was justified in killing
him, because he did slay my child to rescue his brother's
wife.

ELECTRA . 235

Had been partaker with me in his blood ?

Speak all thou wilt : boldly set forth thy plea

To prove thy father did not justly die. 1050

Electra.

jfustice thy plea ! — thy " justice "^ were our shame !

The wife should yield in all things to her lord,

So she be wise. If any think not so,

With her mine argument hath nought to do.

Bethink thee, mother, of thy latest words, 1055

Vouchsafing me free speech to answer thee.

Klytemnestra.

Again I say it ; and I draw not back.

Electra.

Yea, mother, but wilt hear — and punish then ?

Klytemnestra.

Nay : I grant grace of license to thy mood.

Electra.

Then will I speak. My prelude this shall be : — 1060
O mother, that thou hadst a better heart !
That beauty wins you worthy meed of praise,
Helen's and thine : true sisters twain were ye !
Ay, wantons both, unworthy Kastor's name !

I Her assumption (10J5-1045) of the justice of the prin-
ciple that woman has equal rights with man. All Greeks
would have scouted it, and their adoption of it would but
have made them the laughing-stock of the then civilized
world.

236 EURIPIDES.

She, torn from home — yet fain to be undone ; 1065

Thou, murderess of Hellas' noblest son,

Pleading that for a daughter's sake thou slew'st

A husband ! — ah, men knew thee not as I,

Thee, who, before thy daughter's death was doomed,

When from thine home thy lord had newly passed,

Wert sleeking at the mirror thy bright hair ! [1070

The woman who, her husband far from home,

Bedecks herself, blot out her name as vile !

She needeth not to flaunt abroad a face

Made fair, except she be on mischief bent. 1075

Of Hellas' daughters none save thee I know,

Who, when the might of Troy prevailed, was glad.

Whose eyes were clouded when her fortunes sank,

W^ho wished not Agamemnon home from Troy.

Yet reason fair thou hadst to be true wife : 1080

Not worser than Aegisthus was thy lord.

Whom Hellas chose to lead her war-array.

And, when thy sister Helen so had sinned.

High praise was thine to win ; for sinners' deeds

Lift up the good for ensamples in men's sight. 1085

If, as thou say'st, my father slew thy daughter,

How did I wrong thee, and my brother how ?

Why, having slain thy lord, didst thou on us

Bestow not our sire's halls, but buy therewith

An alien couch, and pay a price for shame ? 1090

Nor is thy spouse now exiled for thy son.

Nor for me slain, who hath dealt me living death

Twice crueller than my sister's : yea, if blood

'Gainst blood in judgment rise, I and thy son,

Orestes, must slay thee to avenge our sire : 1095

For, if thy claim was just, this too is just.

Whoso, regarding wealth, or birth, shall wed

ELECTRA. 237

A wanton, is a fool : the lowly chaste

Are better in men's homes than high-born wives.

Chorus.

Chance ordereth women's bridals. Some I mark iioo
Fair, and some foul of issue among men.

Klytemnestra.

Child, still thy nature bids thee love thy sire.

So likewise to the man some sons will cleave :

Some more the mothers than the father love.

I pardon thee. In sooth, not all so glad 1105

Am I, my child, for deeds that I have done.

But thou, why thus unwashed and meanly clad,

Seeing thy travail-sickness now is past ?

Woe and alas for my devisings ! — more

I spurred my spouse' to anger than was need. mo

Electra.

Too late thou sighest, since thou canst not heal.

My sire is dead : but him, the banished one,

Why dost thou not bring back, thine homeless son ?

Klytemnestra.

I fear : mine own good I regard, not his.

Wroth for his father's blood he is, men say. mS

Electra.

Why tarre thy spouse on ever against me ?

I For the sake of clearness, I use in this scene " spouse "
to denote Aegisthus ; " lord," or " husband," for Agamemnon.
Keene interprets here " I raged against mine husband."

238 EURIPIDES.

Klytemnestra.
Nay, tis his mood : stiff-necked thou also art,

Electra.
For grief am I ; yet will I cease from wrath.'

Klytemnestra.
Yea ? — then he too shall cease from troubhng thee.

Electra.
He is haughty, seeing he dwelleth in mine home. 1120

Klytemnestra.
Lo there ! — thou kindlest fires of strife anew.

Electra.
I am dumb : I fear him — even as I fear.^

Klytemnestra.
Cease from this talk. Why didst thou summon me ?

Electra.
Touching my travailing thou hast heard, I wot.

1 Lines 11 18, 11 19, 1120, 1122 are examples of Tragic
Irony, Electra using expressions to which the audience, from
their knowledge of what has happened, attach a meaning
unsuspected by Klytemnestra ; while Klytemnestra uses
words which bear a construction unsuspected by herself.
Perhaps "a son's time accomplished" (1133), may be
another instance, since her own son's time of waiting was
fulfilled.

2 i.e. Not at all, since he is dead : but Klytemnestra would
understand this in the usual sense, " more than I can ex-
press."

ELECTRA. 239

Thou sacrifice for me — I know not how — 1125

The wonted tenth-moon offerings for the babe,
Skilless am I, who have borne no child ere this.

Klytemnestra.
This were her task, who in thy travail helped.

Electra.
Unhelped I travailed, bore alone my babe.

Klytemnestra.

Dwell'st thou from friends and neighbours so remote ?

[1130
Electra.

The poor — none careth to win these for friends !

Klytemnestra.

I enter, to the Gods to pay the dues

For a son's time accomplished. Having shown thee

That grace, I pass afield, to where my lord [ii35

Worships the Nymphs. This chariot ye my maids

Lead hence, and stall my steeds. Soon as ye deem

That this my service to the Gods is done.

Attend. My spouse too must my presence grace.

Electra,

Pass in to my poor house ; and have a care
The smoke-grimed beams besmirch not thine attire.
The Gods' due sacrifice there shalt thou offer. [1140

'[Klytemnestra enters hut.
The maund is dight, and whetted is the knife
Which slew the bull by whose side thou shalt he

240 EURIPIDES.

Stricken. Thou shalt in Hades be his bride

Whose love thou wast in hfe. So great the grace 1145

I grant thee : thine to me — to avenge my sire !

\_Enters hut.
Chorus.

{Sir.)

Vengeance for wrong ! The stormy winds, long lashing

The house, have veered ! There was an hour saw

fall

My chief, with blood the laver's silver dashing, [1150

When shrieked the roof, — yea, topstones of the wall

Shrieked back his cry, " Fiend- wife, and art thou

tearing

My life from me, who in the tenth year's earing

Come to mv dear land, mine ancestral hall ? "

{Ant.)
The tide of justice whelmeth, refluent-roaring,

The wanton wife who met her hapless lord,
When to the towers Titanic heavenward-soaring

He came, — with welcome met him of the sword,
Who grasped in hand the axe keen-edged to sever
Life's thread : — O hapless spouse, what wrong soever

Stung to the deed the murderess abhorred ! [1160

[Epode.)

Ruthless as mountain lioness roaming through
Green glades, she wrought the deed she had set her
hands to do.

\Cry within.']

Klytemnestra.

O children, in God's name slay not your mother ! 1165

Chorus.
Dost thou hear how thrills 'neath the roof a cry ?

ELECTRA. 241

Klytemnestra {within).

Woe ! wretched I !

Chorus.

I too could wail one by her children slain.

God meteth justice out in justice' day.

Ghastly thy sufferings ; foully didst thou slay 11 70

Thy lord for thine own bane !
They come, they come ! Lo, forth the house they set
Their feet, besprent with gouts of mother's blood,
Trophies that witness to her piteous cries.
There is no house more whelmed in misery, ii75

Nor hath been, than the line of Tantalus.^

Enter Orestes with Electra.

Orestes.

{Str. i)
Earth, Zeus, whose all-beholding eye

Is over men, behold this deed
Of blood, of horror — these that lie

Twinned corpses on the earth, that bleed
For my wrongs, and by mine hand die. 11 80

[Woe and alas ! I weep to know
My mother by mine hand laid low !]-

Electra.

Well may we weep ! — it was my sin, brother !
My fury was kindled as flame against her from whose
womb I came.
Woe's me, a daugh,ter ! — and this, my mother !

1 Great-grandfather of Agamemnon.

2 Conjecturally supplied to fill lacuna of two lines which
have been lost, as is indicated by the gap in the metre,
after 11 80.

Vol. II. R

242 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

Alas for thy lot ! Their mother wast thou,
And horrors and anguish no words may tell

At thy children's hands thou hast suffered now !
Yet justly the blow for their sire's blood fell.

Orestes.

{Ant. i)
Phoebus, the deed didst thou commend, iigo

Aye whispering " justice " — thou hast bared
The deeds of darkness, and made end,

Through Greece, of lust that murder dared.
But me what land shall shield ? — what friend,
What righteous man shall bear to see
The slayer of his mother — me ?

Electra.

Woe's me ! What refuge shall what land give me ?
O feet from the dance aye banned ! O spousal-hopeless
hand !
What lord to a bridal-bower shall receive me ? 1200

Chorus.

Again have thy thoughts veered round, yet again !

Now right is thine heart, which was then not right
When to deeds of horror didst thou constrain

Thy brother, O friend, in his heart's despite.

Orestes.

{Sir. 2)
Didst thou mark, how the hapless, clinging, clinging
To my mantle, bared her bosom in dying —
Woe's me ! — and even to the earth bowed low
The limbs that bare me, mine heart-strings wringing ?

ELECTRA. 243

Chorus.

I know thine agony, hearing the crying 1210

Of the mother that bare thee, her wail of woe.

Orestes.

{Ant. 2)

Her hand on my cheek did she lay, and her calling

Rang in mine ears — " My child ! — I implore thee ! "

And she hung, she hung on my neck, to stay

The sword, from my palsied hand-grasp falling.

Chorus {to Electro).

Wretch, how couldst thou bear to behold before thee
Thy mother, gasping her hfe away ? 1220

Orestes.

{Str. 3)
I cast my mantle before mine eyes,
And my sword began that sacrifice,

Through the throat of my mother cleaving, cleav-
ing !

Electra.

Yea, and I urged thee with instant word.
And I set with thee mine hand to the sword.
I have done things horrible past believing !

Orestes.

{Ant. 3)

Take, take, with her vesture the Hmbs shroud round

Of my mother : O close her wide death-wound.

Thou barest them, thou, these hands death-dealing!

Electra.

Lo, thou that wast dear and yet not dear, 1230

244 EURIPIDES.

With the mantle I veil thee over : here

May the curse of the house have end and healing !

Kastor and Pollux appear in mid air above the stage.

Chorus.

Lo, lo, where over the roof-ridge high
Demigods gleam ; — or from thrones in the sky
Stoop Gods ? — it is not vouchsafed unto men
To tread yon path : why draw these nigh
Unto mortal ken ?

Kastor.

Hear, child of Agamemnon : Sons of Zeus,

Twin brothers of thy mother, call to thee ;

I Kastor, this my brother Polydeukes. 1240

Even now the sea's shipwrecking surge have we

Assuaged, and come to Argos, having seen

The slaying of our sister, of thy mother.

She hath but justice ; — yet not just thine act.

Phoebus is Phoebus : since he is my king, 1245

I am dumb. He is wise : — not wise his hest for thee ! —

We must need^ say " 'Tis well." Henceforth must thou

Perform what Fate and Zeus ordain for thee.

To Pylades Electra give to wife :

But thou, leave Argos ; for thou may'st not tread 1250

Her streets, since thou hast wrought thy mother's

death.
The dread Weird Sisters,^ hound-eyed Goddesses,
Shall drive thee mad, and dog thy wanderings.

I The Eumenides, or Erinyes, {Lat. Furies,) whose
special office was to avenge such as had the claim of
kindred, or some daim equally holy, upon the offender.

ELECTRA . 245

To Athens go : the awful image clasp

Of Pallas ; for their serpent -frenzied rage 1255

Shall she refrain, that they may touch thee not,

Outstretching o'er thine head her Gorgon shield.

There is a Hill of Ares, where first sat

Gods to give judgment touching blood-shedding.

When fierce-souled Ares Halirrothius slew, 1260

The Sea-king's son, in wrath for outrage done

His daughter. That tribunal since that hour

Sacred and stablished stands in sight of Gods.

There must thou for this murder be arraigned.

And, in the judgment, equal votes cast down 1265

From death shall save thee : for the blame thereof

Shall Loxias take, who bade thee slay thy mother.

And this for after times shall rest the law,

That equal votes shall still acquit the accused.

Yet shall the Dread Ones, anguish-stricken for this,

Hard by that hill sink into earth's deep cleft [1270

Revered by men, a sacred oracle.'

Thou by Alpheius' streams must found a city

Arcadian, near Lykaian Zeus's shrine ;

And by thy name the city shall be called. ^275

This to thee : touching yon Aegisthus' corse.

The Argive folk shall hide it in the tomb.

Thy mother — Menelaus, now first come

To Nauplia, since he won the land of Troy,

Shall bury her, he and Helen : for she comes, 1280

Who ne'er saw Troy, from Proteus' halls in Egypt. ^

1 As there is no record of oracles delivered at the Areo-
pagus by the Eumenides, oiKqTrjpiov has been proposed —
" their hallowed dwelling-place."

2 According to the legend followed in the " Helena," but
not in " The Daughters of Troy."

246 EURIPIDES.

But Zeus, to stir up strife and slaughter of men,

A phantom Helen unto Ilium sent.

And Pylades shall take his virgin wife.

And from the land Achaian lead her home ; 1285

And him, thy kinsman by repute,' shall bring

To Phocis, and shall give him store of wealth.

Thou, journey round the neck of Isthmian land,^

Till thou attain Kekropia's blissful home. 3

For, when thou hast fulfilled this murder's doom, 1290

Thou shalt be happy, freed from all these toils.

Chorus.

0 children of Zeus, may we draw nigh
Unto speech of your Godhead lawfully ?

Kastor.

Yea : stainless are ye of the murderous deed.

Orestes.

1 too, may I speak to you, Tyndareus' seed ?

Kastor.

Thou too : for on Phoebus I lay the guilt
Of the blood thou hast spilt.

Chorus.

How fell it, that ye Gods, brethren twain

Of her that is slain,
Kept not from her halls those Powers of Bane ? 1300

' Thy nominal brother-in-law, i.e. the peasant, reputed
husband of Electra.

2 The Isthmus of Corinth.

3 Athens, whose citadel was called Kekropia, from its
founder and first king, Kekrops.

ELECTRA. 247

Kastor.

By resistless fate was her doom on-driven,
And by Phoebus' response, in unwisdom given.

Electra.

Yet why hath Apollo by bodings ordained
That I with a mother's blood be stained ?

Kastor.

In the deed ye shared, as the doom ye shared :
The curse of your sires was for twain prepared.
And it hath not spared.

Orestes.

Ah, sister mine, after long, long space of weary waiting,
to see thy face.
And lo, from thy love to be straightway torn,
To forsake thee, be left of thee forlorn ! 13 10

Kastor.

A husband is hers and a home : this pain
Alone must she know, no more to remain
Here, ne'er know Argos again.

Electra.

What drearier lot than this, to be banned
For aye from the borders of fatherland ?

Orestes.

But I flee from the halls of my father afar ;
For a mother's blood at the alien's bar
Arraigned must I stand !

248 EURIPIDES.

Kastor.

Fear not : to the sacred town shalt thou fare

Of Pallas all safely : be strong to bear. 1320

Electra.

Fold me around, breast close to breast,
O brother, O loved ! — of ail loved best !
For the curse of a mother's blood must sever
From our sire's halls us, for ever — for ever !

Orestes.

Fhng thee on me ! Chng close, mine own !
As over the grave of the dead make moan.

Kastor.

Alas and alas ! — for thy pitiful wail

Even Gods' hearts fail ;
For with me and with all the Abiders on High
Is compassion for mortals' misery. 133°

Orestes.
I shall look upon thee not again — not again !

Electra.
Nor my yearning eyes upon thee shall I strain !

Orestes.
The last words these we may speak, we twain !

Electra.

O city, farewell ;
Farewell, ye maidens therein that dwell !

ELECTRA. 249

Orestes.
O faithful and true, must we part, part so ?

Electra.
We part ; — my welling eyes overflow.

Orestes.

Pylades, go ; fair fortune betide : 1340

Take thou Electra for bride.

Kastor.

These shall find spousal-solace :— up, be doing ;

Yon hell-hounds flee, till thou to Athens win.
Their fearful feet pad on thy track pursuing,

Demons of dragon talon, swart of skin,
Who batten on mortal agonies their malice.

We speed to seas Sicilian, from their wrath
To save the prows of surge-imperilled galleys :

Yet, as we pace along the cloudland path.
We help not them that work abomination ; 1350

But, whoso loveth faith and righteousness
All his life long, to such we bring salvation.

Bring them deUverance out of all distress.
Let none dare then in wrong to be partaker.
Neither to voyage with the doomed oath-breaker.
I am a God : to men I publish this.

Chorus.

Farewell ! Ah, whosoe'er may know this blessing,
To fare well, never crushed 'neath ills oppressing,
Alone of mortals tastes abiding bliss.

[Exeunt omnes.

HELEN,

ARGUMENT.

It is told that one of the old bards, named Stesichonis,
who lived six geyierations before Euripides, did in a
certain poem revile Helen, for that her sin was the cause
of misery to Hellas and to Troy. Thereupon was he
struck blind for railing on her who had after death
become a goddess. But the man repented of his pre-
sumption, and made a new song wherein he unsaid all
the evil he had sung of Queen Helen, and wove into his
song an ancient legend, telling how that not she, but her
wraith only, had passed to Troy, while she was borne
by the Gods to the land of Egypt, and there remained
until the day when her lord, turning aside on the home-
ward voyage, should find her there.

When he had done this, liis sight was straightway
restored to him.

In this one play only is Helen's story told according
to the ''Recantation of Stesichorus."

DRAMATIS PERSONS.

Helen, wife of Menelaus.

Teucer, a Greek hero, who fought at Troy.

Menelaus, king of Sparta.

Portress of the palace of Theoklymenus.

Messenger (first), a sailor of Menelaus' crew.

Theonoe, a priestess, sister of Theoklymenus,

Theoklymenus, king of Egypt.

Messenger (second), a servant of Theoklymenus.

The Twin Brethren, Kastor and Pollux.

Chorus, consisting of captive Greek maidens attendant on Helen.

Guards, attendants, huntsmen, and temple-maidens.

Scene : — Before the palace of the King of Egypt by the

mouth of the Nile. In the foreground stands the tomb

of Proteus, father of Theoklymenus.

HELEN.

Helen discovered bowed in prayer at the tomb of Proteus.
She rises and advances to the front of the stage.

Helen.

These be the Nile's fair-flowing virgin-streams,
Who, fed with white snow melting, not with rain
From heaven, waters Egypt's lowland fields.
Lord of this land was Proteus, while he lived,
Dweller in Pharos' isle, and Egypt's king, 5

Who of the Maids sea-haunting wedded one,
Psamathe, widowed wife of Aiakus :
And to this house she brought forth children twain,
A son, Theoklymenus,' — for that honouring
The Gods he hath passed through life, — a noble
daughter, 10

Named Eido, " mother's pride," while yet a babe ;
But, since she grew to bloom of spousal-tide,

I The Greek name should denote "honoured by God";
but the writer of this clause (which most critics consider
interpolated) evidently intended it to mean "honouring
God," which, besides the absurdity of representing a boy as
named from a trait developed in after-life, is inconsistent
with his character. See 1. 542 and 11. 917—921. " For that
honouring The Gods, her lord had lived," would be a read-
ing more in accord with the facts.

256 EURIPIDES.

Theonoe' they called her, for she knew

Heaven's will for things that are and things to be,

Inheriting from her grandsire Nereus this. 15

For me, not fameless is my fatherland

Sparta : my sire was Tyndareus. The tale

Telleth that to my mother Leda flew

Zeus, who had stoln the likeness of a swan,

And, fleeing from a chasing eagle, wrought 20

By guile his pleasure, — if the tale be true.

Helen my name, and these my sufferings :

In strife for beauty came three Goddesses

To Paris in a deep Idaean dell —

Hera, and Kypris, and Zeus' child, the Maid, 25

Fain to bring beauty's judgment unto issue.

And Kypris tempting Paris — he should wed

My fairness, if misfortune can be fair, —

Prevailed : Idaean Paris left the herds,

And for his bride, for me, to Sparta came. 30

But Hera, wroth that she should not prevail,

Turned into air Alexander's joy of me ;

Gave him not me, but fashioned like to me

A breathing phantom, out of cloudland wrought,

For Priam's princely son : he deemed me his 35

Who was not, a vain phantasy. Withal

Zeus' counsels to these evils added more ;

For war he brought upon the Hellenes' land

And hapless Phrygians, to disburden so

Earth-mother of her straitened throngs of men, 40

And to make Hellas' mightiest son renowned.

I lay 'twixt Phrygians' prowess— yet not I,

My name alone — and Hellene spears, the prize.

I i.e. The purpose of God.

HELEN. 257

Me Hermes caught away in folds of air,

And veiled in cloud, — for Zeus forgat me not, — 45

And in these halls of Proteus set me down,

Of all men holding him most continent.

That I might keep me pure for Menelaus.

So am I here : mine hapless lord the while

Gathered a host, set forth for Ilium's towers, 50

Questing the track of me his ravished bride.

And many a life beside Skamander's streams

Perished for me. I, that endured all this,

Yet am cursed too, held traitress to my lord,

Enkindler of a mighty war for Greeks. 55

Why then live on ? This prophecy of Hermes —

Who knew that ne'er to Troy I passed — I heard,

That with my lord in Sparta's plain renowned

I yet should dwell, nor serve an alien couch.

While Proteus yet beheld yon light of day, 60

Inviolate I abode : but he is veiled

Now in earth's darkness ; and the dead king's son

Pursues me. Honouring more mine ancient spouse,

At Proteus' tomb I cast me, suppliant

That he may keep me unsullied for my lord, 65

That, though through Hellas evil fame I bear,

Mine honour here may take no stain of shame.

Enter Teiicer.

Teucer.

Who hath the lordship of these castle-halls ?

To Plutus' palace might one liken them —

Fair battlements and royal flanking-towers ! 70

Ha!

Ye Gods, what sight ! — the loathed similitude

Of her, the murderess, who ruined me

Vol. II S

258 EURIPIDES.

And all the Greeks ! Now the Gods spue thee out —
So like thou art to Helen ! Stood I not 75

On alien soil, by this unerring shaft
Thou hadst died — thy meed for likeness to Zeus'

daughter.

Helen.

Unhappy, whoe'er thou be, why turn from me,
And loathe me for afflictions born of her ?

Teucer.

I erred, to wrath more yielded than was meet. 80

All Hellas hateth her, the child of Zeus.
But for words spoken, lady, pardon me,

Helen.
Who art thou, and whence com'st thou to this land ?

Teucer.
One, lady, of the Achaians evil-starred.

Helen.

No marvel then if Helen thou abhor. 85

But thou, who art thou ? — whence ? — and what thy

name ?

Teucer.

Teucer my name is, Telamon my sire,
And Salamis the land that fostered me.

Helen.
Why dost thou visit then these fields of Nile ?

Teucer.
An exile am I driven from fatherland. 90

HELEN. 259

Helen.
Unhappy thou ? Who banished thee thine home ?

Teucer.
My father Telamon. Who should love me more ?

Helen.
Wherefore ? Such deed imports disastrous cause.

Teucer.
My brother's death at Troy my ruin was.

Helen.
How ? — Not — O not by thy blade reft of life ? 95

Teucer.
Hurling him on his own sword Aias died.

Helen.
Distraught ? — for who uncrazed would dare the deed ?

Teucer.
Of Peleus' son Achilles know'st thou aught ?

Helen.
He came a wooer of Helen, as I heard.

Teucer.
He died : his comrades for his armour strove. 100

Helen.
And how did this thing turn to Aias' bane ?

26o EURIPIDES.

Teucer.
Another won the arms : he passed from Hfe.

Helen.
Art thou in his affliction then afflicted ?

Teucer.
Even so, because I perished not with him.

Helen.
Thou wentest then to Troy-town far-renowned ? 105

Teucer.
Yea, helped to smite her — and myself was stricken.

Helen.
Is she ere this aflame ? — consumed with fire ?

Teucer.
Yea ; of her walls no trace may be discerned.

Helen.
Helen ill-starred, for thee the Phrygians died !

Teucer.
Yea, and Achaians : bitter bale she hath wrought, no

Helen.
How long time since was Ilium destroyed ?

Teucer.
Well-nigh seven summers' circles harvest -crowned.

HELEN. 261

Helen.
How long ere then did ye beleaguer Troy ?

Teucer.
While many moons through ten years ran their course.

Helen.
And captive did ye take the Spartan dame ? 115

Teucer.
Yea ; Menelaus haled her by the hair.

Helen.
Saw'st thou that wretch ? — or speakest from report ?

Teucer.
Even as I see thee with mine eyes ; no less.

Helen.
What if ye nursed a heaven-sent phantasy ?

Teucer.
Of other theme bethink thee ; of her no more. 120

Helen.
So sure are ye of this your fancy's truth ?

Teucer.

I saw her with mine eyes — if 1 see thee.^

I Reading eT8ov ei koI vvv a opw, vice the generally rejected
MS. reading, " Mine eyes beheld, my mind's eye sees her
now."

262 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
Hath Menelaus with his wife won home ?

Teucer.
Nay, nor to Argos, nor Eurotas' streams.

Helen.
Woe ! Ill news this to whom thy tale is ill.^ 125

Teucer.
Lost, with his wife, from sight : so rumour runs.

Helen.
Sailed not together all the Argives home ?

Teucer.
Yea ; but a storm dispersed them far and wide.

Helen.
On what surf-ridges of the outsea brine P^

Teucer.
In the mid-passage of the Aegean sea. 130

Helen.

Hath none since then seen Menelaus come ?

I This is ill news indeed to such as will receive thy tale as
ill news, i.e. as Teucer would understand, to all Menelaus'
friends, — as she means, to herself.

•^ In what quarter of the sea ? — if the southern part, near
Egypt, there is some hope.

HELEN. 263

Teucer.
None : but through Hellas rumour speaks him dead.

Helen.

[Aside) Undone — undone ! — Lives Thestias' daughter

yet?

Teucer.

Leda mean'st thou ? Dead is she, passed from earth.

Helen.
O say not Helen's shame was death to her ! 135

Teucer.
They say it. She coiled the noose about her neck.

Helen.
And Tyndareus' sons, live they, or live they not ?

Teucer.

They are dead — and are not dead : twofold the tale.

Helen.

Which tale prevaileth ? — {aside) Woe for mine afflic-
tions !

Teucer.

In fashion made as stars men name them Gods. 140

Helen.

Fair tidings these ! But what the other tale ?

264 EURIPIDES.

Teucer.

Self-slain they perished for a sister's shame.

Suffice these stories : twice I would not groan.

But for this cause I sought these royal halls,

Being fain to see Theonoe the seer. 145

Thou help me to her, that I may be told

Whereby to steer my galley's prosperous wing

To sea-girt Cyprus, where Apollo bade

That I should dwell, and, for the homeland's sake,

Give it the island-name of Salamis. 150

Helen.

Thy bark shall find its way, friend : but this land
Leave thou, and flee, ere Proteus' son, who rules
This land, behold thee ; — now is he afar.
Following the hounds to slay the wildwood beasts ; —
For whatso Greek he findeth doth he kill : 155

But for what cause — nor seek thou this to learn,
Nor may I tell : how should I profit thee ?

Teucer.

Gracious thy speech is, lady : Heaven vouchsafe

To thee for thy fair deeds requital fair.

A form hast thou like Helen's, but thou hast 160

No heart like hers, nay, diverse utterly.

Ruin be hers ! Ne'er to Eurotas' streams

Come she ! But be thou, lady, ever blest. [Exit.

Helen.

For mine anguish I raise an exceeding great and bitter
cry :

\

HELEN. 265

How shall I agonize forth my lament ? — to what Muse
draw nigh
With tears, with death-dirges, or moanings of misery ?

Woe's me, woe's me !

{Str. i)
Come, Sea-maids, hitherward winging,

Daughters of Earth's travail-throes.

Sirens, to me draw nigh,

That your flutes and your pipes may sigh 170

In accord with my wailings, and cry

To my sorrows consonant-ringing

With tears, lamentations, and woes.

Oh would but Persephone lend

Fellow-mourners from Hades, to blend

Death-dirges with mine ! — I would send

Thank-offering of weeping and singing

Of chants to her dead, unto those

On whom Night's gates close.

Enter Chorus.

Chorus.

{Ant. i)
I was spreading, where grass droops trailing

In the river-flood's darkling gleam, 180

Purple-dyed robes 'neath the blaze
Of the sun, and his golden rays,
Overdraping the bulrush-sprays ;' —
Then heard I a pitiful wailing ;

Mournful and wild did it seem

As the shriek of a Naiad's despair

Far-borne on the mountain air.

When she moans faint-fleeing the snare,

I The colours of fabrics dyed with the sea-purple of Tyre
were improved by exposure to sunlight, after wetting with
fresh water. Cf. Hippolytus, 125.

266 EURIPIDES.

When the might of Pan is prevaihng,

And the gorges where cataracts stream 190

Ring to her scream.

Helen.

(Str. 2)
O Hellas' daughters, ye
By strange oars borne o'ersea,
One from Achaia faring,
Tears unto my tears bearing.
Tells Ilium's overthrow
Wrapt in the red flame's glow,
Through murderess me laid low —
This baleful name of me !
Of Leda hath he told, self-slain 200

By the death-noose's strangling strain.

Her heart for my shame anguish-riven : —
Tells of my lord, — o'er far seas driven
Now hath he vanished tempest-tost ; —
Of Kastor and his brother lost
From earth, their country's twin-born boast :

Where hoofs have thundered, athletes striven,
Eurotas' reeds and racecourse-plain
Wait these in vain.

Chorus.

{Ant. 2)
Woe for thy misery, 210

The weird ordained for thee.
Foredoomed to days of weeping
Since Zeus through clouds down-sweeping,
A swan with wings of snow.
Beguiled thy mother so !

HELEN. 267

What know'st thou not of woe ?

From what ills art thou free ?
In death thy mother hides her pain :
Zeus' sons, his well-beloved twain, 220

To days of bliss no more may waken :

Thine home-land have thine eyes forsaken ;
And slander, through her cities rife,
Assigns thee an accursed life,
Proclaims thee yon barbarian's wife :

Death amid storm thy lord hath taken :
Thou gladdenest no sire's halls again.
Nor Brazen Fane.'

Helen.

{Str. 3)

Ah, who of the Phrygians dared that felling

Of the pines, for the mourning of Ilium fated, 230

And for tears unto them that in Hellas were dwelling.
Of whose beams was the galley, with evil freighted,
Builded of Priam's offspring, the hated,
Whom oars barbaric sped over the tide,

Till he came to the hearth of my Spartan palace
In quest of my beauty, foredoomed the occasion

Of mischief : beside him in treacherous malice
Came Kypris, the bringer of death's desolation
Unto Danaus' sons, unto Priam's nation.

Woe's me for my lot, who am misery's bride ! 240

{Ant.^)

From the gold of the throne of her glory bending.
Dread Hera, Zeus' bride jealousy-glowing.

Sped the fleetfoot scion of Maia descending,

I The temple of " Athena of the Brazen Fane " at
Sparta.

268 EURIPIDES.

Who came on me plucking the roses, and throwing
Into my gown-lap their buds fresh-blowing,

To bear to the Brazen Fane their pride.
And he soared with his prey through the clouds of

heaven.
And to this land all unblest he brought her,
And he made her a strife, for calamity striven,

For Hellas, of Priam's people who sought her. 250
But Helen, by Simois' crimsoned water,

Was a breath, was a battle-cry — nought beside.

Chorus.

Sorrows are thine, 1 know : yet is it best
Lightly as may be to endure life's ills.

Helen.

Friends, 'neath the yoke of what doom am I bowed ?

Bore not my mother a monster unto men ? [255

For never Hellene nor barbarian dame

Brought forth white vial of a fledgling brood, ^

Wherein to Zeus men say that Leda bare me.

A marvel are my life and all my fortunes, 260

In part through Hera, through my beauty in part.

Oh could I, like a picture blotted out.

For that fair favour take uncomeliness !

Oh might the Greeks forget the lot accurst

That now is mine, and treasure memories 265

Of honour touching me, as now of shame !

Whoso, on one chance centring all his hopes,

Is stricken of God, hard though it be, may bear it ;

I Alluding to the two eggs of Leda, from one of which
issued Kastor and Pollux, from the other Helen.

HELEN. 269

But I — I am whelmed in many miseries :

First, an ill name, though I am clean of sin ; 270

And worse is this than suffering for just cause,

To bear the burden of sins that are not ours.

Then, from my home-land the Gods banished me

To alien customs, and, bereft of friends,

A slave am I, the daughter of free sires ; 275

For midst barbarians slaves are all save one.

And — the one anchor that stayed up my fortunes,

That yet my lord would come, and end my woes —

He hath died : who was mine anchor is no more.

Dead is my mother, and her murderer I, — - 280

Unjustly, yet the injustice cleaves to me.

And she, erewhile mine house's pride and mine,

My child, a virgin groweth grey unwed ;

And the Twin Brethren, named the Sons of Zeus,

Are not. But, though I have nought but misery, 285

Me hath ill-faring, not ill-doing, slain.

And, worst of all, if I should reach mine home.

Men would in dungeon chain me, as the Helen

For whom to Ilium Menelaus went.

For, if mine husband lived, by tokens known 290

To none beside, might recognition be.

This cannot now be : no, he cannot 'scape.

Why then do I live on ? — what fortune waits me ?

Shall I choose marriage for escape from ills.

Dwell with a lord barbarian, at his board 295

Seated mid pomp ? Nay, if a husband loathed

Dwell with a woman, her own self she loathes.

To die were best. How then with honour die ?

Unseemly is the noose 'twixt earth and heaven :

Even of thralls 'tis held a death of shame. 300

Noble the dagger is and honourable.

270 EURIPIDES.

And one short instant rids the flesh of life.

Yea, to such depth of evil am I come !^

For other women are by beauty made

Blest — me the selfsame gift to ruin brought. 305

Chorus.

Helen, believe not yonder stranger spake
Truth only, be he who he may that came.

Helen.
Nay, but he plainly said my lord had died.

Chorus.
In multitude of words there want not lies.^

Helen.
Nay rather, plain truth may a plain tale be. 310

Chorus.
Nay, 'tis thou leanest more to grief than joy.

Helen.
Fear folds me round, and drags me to my dread.

Chorus.
How stands to thee affected yonder household ?

1 That, being resolved to die, I now deliberate only on
the means.

2 Or, with Paley, transposing cth; and aacfirj, and taking
efjLTraXLv TwvSe to mean " contrary to these (lies) " : —

Ch. By lies may many a tale seem all too clear.
Hel. Nay, falsehood rings not with the note of truth.

HELEN. 271

Helen.
Friends all, save him who hunts me for his bride.

Chorus.

Know'st then thy part ? — From session at the tomb —

[315
Helen.

To what speech or what counsel drawest thou ?

Chorus.

Pass to the house : of her who knoweth all,
The daughter of the sea-born Nereid maid,
Theonoe, ask if yet thine husband live,
Or hath left light ; and, being certified, 320

According to thy fortunes joy or mourn.
But, ere thou know aught truly, what avails
That thou shouldst grieve ? Nay, hearken unto me : —
Leave thou this tomb, and with the maid commune,
Of whom shalt thou learn all. When thou hast
here 325

One to resolve the doubt, what wouldst thou more ?^
I too with thee will pass into the house.
With thee inquire the maiden's oracles.
That woman woman's burden bear, is meet.

Helen.

{Str.)
I hail, friends, the word ye have spoken. 330

Pass in, pass ye into the hall.
To give ear unto prophecy's token
How the end of my toils shall befall.

I Following Dindorf s punctuation.

272 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

Thou callest on her that hears full fain.

Helen.

Woe for this day with its burden of pain !
What word waiteth, what desolation
Of tears past relief ?

Chorus.

Nay, forestall not, O friend, lamentation
Prophetic of grief.

Helen.

(Ant.)
To what doom hath mine husband been given ?

Doth he yet see the light of the day, [34°

See the Sun's wheels flash through the heaven,
See the gleams of the star-trodden way ?

* ■•• --i^ >;; ^; >t:i

* :;= •-:; ;;; ^c =1:

Or to him have the dead done obeisance ?
Doth the nethergloom hide ?

Chorus.

Nay, look for a fate of fair presence.
Whatsoe'er shall betide.

Helen.

I cry unto thee, I invoke thy name,

O river with ripple-washed reed-beds green,

I Two lines missing, the first belonging to the Chorus,
the second to Helen, corresponding to those in the Strophe.

HELEN.

273

Eurotas ! — true was the word that came 350

That my lord on the earth is no more seen ?

Chorus,

Wild words and whirling — ah, what should they
mean ?

Helen.

The death-dealing cord

Round my neck will I twine,
Or the thirst of the sword
In this heart's blood of mine
Shall be quenched, through the flesh of my neck as I
plunge it to life's deep shrine.

For a sacrifice to the Goddesses three,
And to Paris, whose pipe's wild melody
Floated afar over Ida, and round still steadings of kine.

Chorus.

Far hence averted may mischief flee, 360

And fortune fair abide upon thee !

Helen.

Woe, hapless Troy, for thee, woe !
Thou hast perished for sins not thine own,' under
misery's load brought low !
And the gifts of Kypris to me for their fruit have

borne
Rivers of blood and of tears, and to them that mourn
Anguish is added, and grief to the grief- forlorn.
There are mothers for dead sons weeping ;

I Barnes's interpretation.

Vol. IL T.

274 EURIPIDES.

There are maids that have cast shorn hair
Where seaward Skamander on-sweeping

The Kmbs of their brothers bare.
And from Hellas a cry, a cry, 370

Ringeth heavenward wild and high.

And with frenzied hands on her head

She smiteth : her fingers are red
From the cheeks that the blood-furrows dye.

Ah, maiden of Arcady, happy, Kallisto,' art thou,
O fourfoot-pacing thing who wast Zeus's bride !
Better by far than my mother's is thy lot now,

Who hast cast the burden of human sorrow aside,

And only now for the shaggy limb [380

Of the brute with tears are thy fierce eyes dim.^

Yea, happier she whom Artemis drave from her choir,

A stag gold-antlered, Merops' Titanian daughter, 3

Because of her beauty, — but mine with the brands

of desire
Hath enkindled Dardanian Pergamus' ruin-pyre,

And hath given the Achaians to slaughter.
[They pass into the palace.
Enter Menelaus.

Menelaus.

Ah, Pelops, thou at Pisa victor once
Over Oenomaus in chariot -strife,

1 A nymph, one of the victims of Zeus, changed into a
bear.

2 Adopting the reading SiatWts for Xcatvr??.

3 We find no other reference in classic fable to this
metamorphosis of the daughter of Merops into a stag with
golden horns.

HELEN. 275

Oh that, what time thou mad'st the Gods a feast,

Thou hadst left in presence of the Gods thy Hfe,

Ere thou begattest Atreus, sire to me, 390

Who raised up seed of Aerope — Agamemnon,

And me, Menelaus, chariot-yoke renowned.^

For mightiest host on earth — no vaunt is this —

Did I speed overseas to Troy, their chief;

Nor by compulsion captained them to war, 395

But led with Hellas' heroes' glad consent.

Some must we count mid them that are no more ;

Gladly have other some escaped the sea,

And bring back home the names of men deemed dead.

But I far o'er the grey sea's shoreless surge 400

"Wander in pain, long as the leaguer-years

Of Troy •,^ and though I yearn to reach my land,

Of this I am not held worthy by the Gods,

But to all Libya's beaches lone and wilds

Have sailed : yea, whenso I am nigh my land, 405

Back the blast drives me ; never following breeze

Hath swelled my sail to waft me to mine home.

And now, a shipwrecked wretch, my comrades lost,

On this land am I cast : against the rocks

My ship is shattered all in countless shards. 410

1 The two chiefs are, by a common figure, compared to
two horses yoked to a war-chariot. The same comparison
is used of the children of Medea {Medea, 1145), and of the
Goddesses approaching Paris on Mount Ida {Andromache
276) ; also, by Aeschylus {Agamemnon, 44), of these same
chiefs.

2 Troy was besieged for ten years ; Menelaus had now
wandered for seven : but the time may well have seemed as
long.

•^ In the coasting navigation of the heroic age, the crews
always, when practicable, put ashore for the night, there
being no cabins, nor even the rudest sleeping accommodation,
on their galleys. See Odyssey, esp. Bks. ix, x, xii.

276 EURIPIDES.

Wrenched from its cunning fastenings was the keel,

Whereon past hope and hardly was I saved

With Helen, whom I had snatched from Ilium's wreck.

But this land's name, and who her people be,

I know not, being abashed to yonder throngs 415

To join me, who might ask of mine ill plight.

But hide for shame my misery ; for a man

Low-fallen from high estate more sharply feels

The strangeness of it than the long unblest.

Want wasteth me ; for neither food have I 420

Nor raiment for my body, — ^judge by these

That gird me, rags washed shoreward from the ship.

The robes once mine, bright vest and bravery,

The sea hath swallowed. In a cave's deep cleft

My wife I hid, first cause of all my woes, 425

And hither come, for I have straitly charged

My friends yet living to watch over her.

Alone I come, seeking for loved ones there

What shall avail their need, if search may find.

And, marking yonder mansion battlement-girt, 430

And stately portals of a prosperous man,

I drew nigh : from a wealthy house is hope

Of somewhat for my crew ; but from bare walls

Nought could men aid us, howsoe'er they would.

[^Knocks at gate.^
Ho ! what gate-warder forth the halls will come 435
To tell within of my calamities ?

Door of palace opens. Portress appears on threshold.

Portress.

Who loitereth at the doors ? — wilt thou not hence ?
Away, stand not before the courtyard gate

HELEN.

277

Troubling my lords ; else shalt thou die, who art

A Greek : we have no dealings with the Greeks. 440

Menelaus.

Grey mother, all these words thou sayest well : —
Even so — I will obey — refrain thy wrath —

Portress.

Begone ! — this charge is laid upon me, stranger,
That none of Hellenes to these halls draw nigh.

Menelaus.
Ah, thrust not forth, nor drive me hence by force ! 445

Portress.
Thou wilt not heed my words ?— on thine head be it.

Menelaus.
Bear mine appeal unto thy lords within.

Portress.
Thine ! — bitter should my bearing be, I wot !

Menelaus.
A shipwrecked stranger I : none violate such.

Portress.
To another house pass on instead of this. 450

Menelaus.
Nay, but I will within ! — yield thou to me !

278 EURIPIDES.

Portress.
Thou mak'st a coil : but force shall thrust thee hence.

Menelaus.
Ah me !— where now my glorious war-array ?

Portress.
Some great one haply there wast thou, not here.

Menelaus.
Ah fortune, how unmerited this slight ! 455

Portress.

Why stream thine eyes with tears ? — why make such
moan ?

Menelaus.

For those my happy fortunes overpast.

Portress.
Away then : on thy friends bestow thy tears.

Menelaus.
What land is this, and whose these royal halls ?

Portress.
'Tis Proteus' palace. Egypt is the land. 460

Menelaus.
Egypt !— Woe's me, to have sailed to such a land !

Portress.
Wherefore misprize the glory ^ of the Nile ?

^ yavos- dl. yeVo?, " nation."

HELEN. 279

Menelaus.
I blame it not : mine own hard lot I moan.

Portress.
Many be fortune-crost, not thou alone.

Menelaus.
Is he within then, whom thou namest king ? 465

Portress.
This is his tomb : his son rules o'er the land.

Menelaus.
Where then is he ? Within, without the halls ?

Portress.
Nay, not within. Grim foe to Greeks is he.

Menelaus.
And what the cause, whereof I feel the effects ?

Portress.
Zeus' daughter Helen is within these halls. 470

Menelaus.
How say'st thou ? — what thy tale ? — speak yet again.

Portress.
Tyndareus' child, who erst in Sparta dwelt.

Menelaus.
Whence did she come ? What may this matter mean ?

28o EURIPIDES.

Portress.
From Lacedaemon hither journeyed she.

Menelaus.

When ? {aside) Never stolen from the cave — my wife !

[475
Portress.

Ere the Achaians, stranger, fared to Troy.

But thou, begone : somewhat hath chanced within

Whereby the palace is disquieted.

Thou art come in evil hour, and if my lord

Find thee, thy stranger's welcome shall be death. 480

Well-wisher unto Greeks am I, although

Harsh words I gave for terror of my lord.

lExit.^
Menelaus.

What shall I think ? — what say ? — for lo, I hear

Of imminent ills hard-following on the old,

If I have brought the wife I won from Troy 485

Hither, and safe within the cave she lies.

Yet in these halls another woman dwells

Who bears the selfsame name as mine own wife !

Yon woman named her born of Zeus, his daughter.

Can any man that bears this name of Zeus 490

By Nile's banks dwell ? — Sooth, one is he in heaven.

And where hath earth a Sparta, save alone

There where Eurotas' streams are fair with reeds ? —

One only bears the name of Tyndareus : —

Is there a land twin-named with Lacedaemon 495

Or Troy ? — I know not what to say hereof :

For on the wide earth many, as men grant,

Bear like names, city bearing city's name,

HELEN. 281

And woman woman's : marvel none is here.

Nor from a handmaid's terrors will I flee ; 500

For there is none so barbarous of soul

As to deny me food, my name once heard.

Famed is Troy's burning : I, who kindled it,

Menelaus, am renowned in every land.

I will await the king ; and for two things 505

Must I take heed : — if he be ruthless-souled.

Then will I flee, and hide me by the wreck ;

But if he show relenting, I will ask

Help for my need in this mine evil plight.

This in my misery is the deepest depth, 510

That I, who am a king, should beg my bread

Of other princes : yet it needs must be.

Not mine the saying is, but wisdom's saw —

*' Stronger is nought than dread Necessity."

\_Retires to hack of stage.
Enter Chorus.

Chorus.

, The word which the prophetess said.

In the king's halls heard I its sound —
" Not yet Menelaus is dead.
Nor to darkness visible fled
Of Erebus, hid in the ground ;

But is still over wide seas driven 520

Toil-worn, neither yet is it given
To attain to the fatherland's haven,
But in homelessness roams evermore

Wretched, of friends bereft.
Lighting down upon every shore'
Of earth, since the brine-dipt oar
Troyland long ago left."

^ See note on line 404.

282 EURIPIDES.

Enter Helen.

Helen.

Lo, to my session at the tomb again

I come, who have heard Theonoe's glad words,

Who knoweth all things truly. Yet alive, 530

Saith she, my lord beholds the light of day.

But roameth sailing sea-tracks numberless

Hither and thither, and with wanderings spent

Shall come, when he hath reached his sufferings' goal ; —

Yet said not if at last he shall escape ; 535

For I refrained from closely questioning this

For gladness, when she spake him yet alive.

And somewhere nigh this land is he, she said,

From shipwreck cast ashore with friends but few.

When wilt thou come to me ? — how long-desired ! 540

Menelaus advances from hack of stage.

Ha ! who is this ? — -and am I haply snared

By plots of Proteus' god-contemning son ?

Swift as a racing steed or bacchanal

Shall I not seek yon tomb ? Of ruffian mien

Is yonder man who holdeth me in chase. 545

Menelaus.

Thou that with fearful effort strainest on

To the tomb's basement and the altar-pillars.

Stay ! — wherefore flee ? — with one glimpse of thy form

Thou with tongue-tied amazement fillest me.

\_Seizes her hand.']
Helen.

I am outraged, women ! for I am held back 550

Of this man from the tomb ! He hath caught me, fain
To give to his lord, whose marriage-yoke I fled.

HELEN. 283

Menelaus.
No robber I, nor minister of wrong !

Helen.
Yet wild attire about thy form thou hast.

Menelaus.
Put fears away, and stay thy hurrying foot ! 555

Helen (grasping the altar).
I stay, since now I chng unto this spot.

Menelaus.
Who art thou, lady ? Whose the face I see ?

Helen.
Who thou ? The selfsame cause have I to ask.

Menelaus.
Never yet saw I form more like to hers !

Helen.
Gods ! — for God moves in recognition of friends. 560

Menelaus.
A Greek art thou, or daughter of the land ?

Helen.
A Greek ; thy nation too I fain would learn.

Menelaus.
Thou art very Helen, lady, to mine eyes.

284 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
And thou Menelaus ! — I know not what to say.

Menelaus.

Thou nam'st me truly, a man most evil-starred. 565

Helen (clasping hint).

0 thou to thy wife's arms returned at last !

Menelaus.
Wife ? — thou my wife ! Touch not my vesture thou !

Helen.
Wife — whom my father Tyndareus gave to thee.

Menelaus.
Light-bearer Hekate, send gracious visions !^

Helen.
No phantom handmaid I of the Highway Queen. 570

Menelaus.

1 am but ong — no lord of two wives I !

Helen.
And of what wife beside me art thou lord ?

Menelaus.
Whom the cave hides, whom I from Phrygia brought.

I Spectres and phantoms were regarded as the attendants
of Hekate. See note on Ion, 1048.

HELEN. 285

Helen.

None other wife is thine save only me.

Menelaus.

What, is my wit sound, but mine eye diseased ? 575

Helen.

Behold me — feel'st thou not thou seest thy wife ?

Menelaus.

The form is hers, but plain truth bars the claim.

Helen.

Look — what more wouldst thou ?— who more plainly
thine ?

Menelaus.

Like her thou art : this will I not deny.

Helen.
Who then shall better teach thee than thine eyes ? 580

Menelaus.
At this I stumble, another wife I have.

Helen.
To Troy I went not : that a phantom was.

Menelaus.
Bat who can fashion living phantom-forms ?

Helen.
Aether, whereof thou hast a wife god-shapen.

286

EURIPIDES.

Menelaus.
Shapen of what God ? Passing strange thy tale ! 585

Helen.
Hera, to baffle Paris with my wraith.

Menelaus.
How wast thou here then, and in Troy withal ?

Helen.
My name might be in many lands, not I.

Menelaus.
Unhand me ! — hither I came with griefs enough !

Helen.

How ? — leave me, and lead hence thy phantom-bride ?

[590
Menelaus.

Yea — since thou art like to Helen, fare thee well.

Helen.
Undone ! — I have found my spouse, and may not keep !

Menelaus.
My toils at Troy convince me more than thou.

Helen.

Woe's me ! Who is more sorrow-crushed than I ?
My best-beloved forsakes me ! — I shall see 595

Never my countrymen nor fatherland.

HELEN. 287

Enter Messenger.

Messenger.

Menelaus, at last I find thee, searching long,
Through all this land barbaric wandering.
Being sent of those thy comrades left behind.

Menelaus.
How ? — by barbarian robbers are ye spoiled ? 600

Messenger.
Less strange the tale I bear is than the truth.

Menelaus.
Speak ! — by this eagerness, thou bring'st strange news.

Messenger.
I say thou barest toils untold for nought.

Menelaus.
Herein thou mourn'st old woes : what news dost bring ?

Messenger.

Gone is thy wife — into the folds of air 605

Wafted and vanished ! Hid in heaven's depths

She hath left the sacred cave wherein we watched her,

With this cry, " Ah unhappy Phrygian folk,

And all Achaians, who by Hera's wiles

Upon Skamander's banks still died for me, 610

Deeming that Paris had, who had not, Helen !

I, having tarried all the time foredoomed,

My destiny fulfilled, to heaven return,

288 EURIPIDES.

My parent. Tyndareus' sad daughter bears

An ill name all for nought, who is innocent." 615

He suddenly perceives Helen.

Hail, child of Leda ! So then thou wast here !

Even now I announced thee passed to viewless heights

Of star-land, knowing not thou bar'st a form

Wing-clad. Thou shalt not mock us with a tale

Again of troubles heaped upon thy lord 620

And his allies, for nought, in Ilium.

Menelaus.

This is it that she said : — this woman's words
Agree — they are true ! O day, long, long desired,
Which giveth thee into mine arms to clasp !

Helen.

O Menelaus, best-beloved, the time 625

Was long, but even now the joy is here !

Friends, friends, with rapture my lofd have I found,
And with arms of love have I clasped him round ;
And the goal of the sun's long race is with brightness
crowned !

Menelaus.

And I thee : the long tale of all these years, 630

Where to begin it first I know not now.

Helen.

I exult — yea, my tingling tresses uprise

On mine head, and the tears well forth from mine

eyes ;
And about thy body mine arms I fling,
O husband mine, to my joy to cling !

HELEN. 289

Menelaus.

0 sweetest presence thou ! — no more I chide.

1 clasp Zeus' child and Leda's, clasp my bride,
Her to whose happy bridal, tossing flame

Of torch, thy brethren of the white steeds' came 640
Erstwhile ; and Gods removed her from mine home :
But now God speeds us on to newer, happier doom.

Helen.

And the evil made good hath united us, though it be

late ;
Yet may blessing be on me, mine husband, in this new

fate !

Menelaus.

Blessing on thee ! I pray the selfsame prayer ;
For grief and joy the twain made one must share.

Helen.

Friends, friends, for the ills gone by
I sorrow no more nor sigh. [650

My beloved is mine, is mine ! Through year on year
1 have waited, have waited my lord, till from Troy he
appear.

Menelaus.

Thine am I and thou mine. O weary while
Of sore strife, ere I knew the Goddess' guile !
Yet have my tears, through rapture of relief,
More thankfulness than grief.

I Kastor and Pollux.

Vol. n. ' U

290 EURIPIDES.

Helen.

What can I say ? — what mortal had looked for this ?

I am clasping thee unto my breast, an undreamed-of

bUss !

Menelaus.

And I thee, who to Ida's town, men thought,
Wentest, and Ilium's towers misery-fraught.

Helen.

Woe's me ! to the bitter beginning of all dost thou
go ! 660

Menelaus.

'Fore heaven, how wast thou ravished from mine home ?

Helen.
Woe's me for the bitter tale that thou seekest to know !

Menelaus.
Tell ; I must hear. From God's hand all things come.

Helen.
Yet oh, I abhor to unfold it, the story of woe.

Menelaus.
Yet tell : 'tis sweet to hear of woes past o'er.

Helen.

Never to alien prince's bed
Wafted by wings of the oars I fled,
Nor by wings of a lawless love on-sped.

HELEN. 291

Menelaus.

What God, what fate, thee from thy country tore ?

Helen.

Zeus' Son, O mine husband, 'twas Zeus' son caught
Me away,"it was Hermes to Nile that brought. [670

Menelaus.

Ah strange ! Who sent him ? Ah, the awesome tale !

Helen.

I wept, and the tears from mine eyes yet run :
By the bride of Zeus was I then undone.

Menelaus.

Hera ? — what would she, heaping on us bale ?

Helen.

Woe for my curse — for the baths from the hill-springs

flowing'
Where flushed the Goddesses' loveliness loveHer-glow-

ing,
Whereof that Judgment- came for a land's overthrowing !

Menelaus.
Did Hera make this judgment woe for thee ?3

1 Cf. Andromache, 1. 284.

2 The Judgment of Paris.

3 Retaining the MSS. reading. Lit. "Did Hera make
this matter of the Judgment a part of thy woes ? "

292 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
From Kypris to take the prey, —

Menelaus.

Say on, tell how. 680

Helen.
From Paris, to whom she had promised me, —

Menelaus.

Hapless thou !
Helen.

And the hapless to Egypt she brought, as my plight is

now.

Menelaus.

And gave him thy wraith, as thou tellest me ?

Helen.

But the woes in thine halls, O my mother, the woes
that befell thee—
Alas and alas !

Menelaus.

What is this thou wouldst tell me ?

Helen.

No mother have I ! She knit up her neck for shame
In the strangling noose, for my bridal of evil fame !

Menelaus.

Woe's me ! Our child Hermione, liveth she ?

HELEN. 293

Helen.

Spouseless and childless, she maketh moan, [6go
My lord, for my marriage that marriage was none.

Menelaus.

O thou who ruinedst mine house utterly,
Ruin for thee too, Paris, this was made,
Ruin for hosts of Danaans brass-arrayed.

Helen.

And me from my country, from thee, God took,
Casting me forth accurst to an evil lot,
For that husband and home for a marriage of shame I
forsook —

Who forsook them not !

Chorus.

If ye shall light on bliss in days to be
Unbroken, for the past shall this atone.

Messenger.
Menelaus, grant me too to share thy joy. 700

Menelaus.
Yea, ancient, in our story share thou too.

Messenger.
Sat she not arbitress of strife at Troy ?

Menelaus,

Not she ; but by the Gods was I beguiled.

Who grasped a sorry cloud-wreath in mine arms. 705

294 EURIPIDES.

Messenger.

How say'st thou ?

For a cloud then all vainly did we strive ?

Menelaus.

This Hera wrought, and those three Goddesses' strife.

Messenger.

Is this, who is very woman, this thy wife ? f

I
Menelaus. i

Even she : trust thou my word as touching this. 710 f:

)
Messenger. -

i

Daughter, how manifold God's counsels are.

His ways past finding out ! Lightly he turns

And sways us to and fro : sore travaileth one ;

One long unvexed is wretchedly destroyed,

Having no surety still of each day's lot. 715

Thou and thy lord in sorrow have had your part ;

In ill-fame thou, in fury of battle he.

Then, all his striving nought availed ; but now

Effortless he ha^h won the crown of bliss.

Thy grey sire, then, and those Twin-brethren ne'er 720

Thou shamedst, nor the deeds far-told hast done !

Now I recall afresh thy spousal-tide.

And how I waved the torch, in four-horsed car

Racing beside thee ; and thou, chariot-borne

With him, a bride, didst leave thine happy home. 725

He is base, who recks not of his master's weal,

Rejoicing with him, sorrowing in his pain.

Still may I be, though I be bondman born.

HELEN. 295

Numbered among bondservants noble-souled ;

So may I have, if not the name of free, 730

The heart : for better this is than to bear

On my one head two ills — to nurse base thoughts

Within, and do in bondage others' bests.

Menelaus.

Come, ancient, ofttimes toiling at my side

Hast thou achieved the travail of the shield ; 735

And now, partaker in my happy lot.

Go, tidings to our friends left yonder bear

In what plight thou hast found us, and our bliss.

Bid them await, abiding by the strand.

The issue of strife that waits me, as I deem ; 740

Bid them, if we by stealth may take her hence,

To watch, that we, in one good fortune joined.

May 'scape from these barbarians, if we may.

Messenger.

This will I do, king. But the lore of seers,

How vain it is I see, how full of lies. 745

So then the altar-flames were utter naught,

The voices of winged things ! Sheer folly this

Even to dream that birds may help mankind.

Kalchas told not, nor gave sign to the host.

Yet saw, when for a cloud's sake died his friends : 750

Nor Helenus told ; but Troy for nought was stormed !

" Yea, for the God forbade," thou mightest say.

Why seek we then to seers ? With sacrifice

To Gods, ask good, and let soothsayings be.

They were but as a bait for greed devised : 755

None idle getteth wealth through divination.

Sound wit, with prudence, is the seer of seers.

296 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

My mind as touching seers is even at one

With yonder ancient. Who hath Gods for friends

Hath the best divination in his home. 760

Helen.

Enough : unto this present all is well.
But, toil-tried, how thou earnest safe from Troy,
To know were profitless ; yet friends must needs
Yearn to be told the afflictions of their friends.

Menelaus.

In one word, one thought's track, thou hast asked me
much. 765

Why tell of those in the Aegean lost,
Of Nauplius' beacons on Eubcea's cliffs,^
Of Crete, of Libyan cities visited,
Of Perseus' heights P^ — I should not with the tale
Sate thee, and telling should renew my pain, — 770
Toil-worn with suffering, should but grieve twice o'er.

Helen.

Wiser thine answer than my questioning is.
Yet — let the rest pass— tell but this, how long
O'er the sea-ridges vainly wanderedst thou ?

1 Palamedes, the son of Nauplius king of Euboea, was
one of the Greek captains who sailed to Troy. He was
treacherously put to death by Greek chiefs who envied his
prowess, and his father, in revenge, lit false signals on the
cliffs of Kaphareus, by which the Greek fleet, on the home-
voyage, was lured to destruction. See 11. 1126 — 1131.

2 A headland at the west of the Nile Delta, where Perseus
slew the Gorgon Medusa.

HELEN. 297

Menelaus.

Through courses seven of cirding years I passed, 775
Besides those ten years in the land of Troy.

Helen.

Alas, toil-tried, thou nam'st a weary space !
Yet, thence escaped, thou meetest murder here.

Menelaus.

How mean'st thou ? — what say'st thou ? — thy words
are death !

Helen.

Flee hence ; with all speed get thee forth this land.' 780
Thou shalt be slain by him whose are these halls.

Menelaus.
What have I done that meriteth such doom ?

Helen.
Coming unlooked-for thou dost thwart my marriage.

Menelaus.
How ? — purposeth some man to wed my wife ?

Helen.
Yea, to repeat all tyrannous wrong I have borne. 785

]\Ienelaus.

In his own might — or despot of the land ?

^ This line is commonly rejected, being regarded as an
interpolation from Phccnissae, 972, and as destroying the
balance of the stichomuthia.

298 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
The ruler of this country, Proteus' son.

Menelaus.
This was the riddle that the portress spake !

Helen.
At which of the alien portals didst thou stand ?

Menelaus.
At these, whence like a beggar I was driven. 790

Helen,
Not surely begging bread ? — ah, woe is me !

Menelaus.
Even so, in deed, though not the name had I.

Helen.
Touching my bridal, then, shouldst thou know all.

Menelaus.
Yea, but know not if thou hast 'scaped his arms.

Helen.
Rest sure, unsullied hath my couch been kept. 795

Menelaus.
Of this what proof ? Glad tidings this, if true.

Helen.
Seest thou my wretched session at this tomb ?

HELEN. 299

Menelaus.
A straw couch — hapless, what is this to thee ?

Helen.
Fleeing this marriage I am suppliant here.

Menelaus.
No altar nigh ? — or this the alien's wont ? 800

Helen.
As well this warded me as fanes of Gods.

Menelaus.
May I not bear thee home, then, overseas ?

Helen.
The sword awaits thee rather than my couch.

Menelaus.
Then were I of all men unhappiest.

Helen.
Now think not shame to flee from this land forth. 805

Menelaus.
And leave thee ? — I, who sacked Troy for thy sake !

Helen.
Better than that my couch should be thy death.

Menelaus.
Tush — craven promptings these, unworthy Troy !

300 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
Thou canst not slay the king — perchance thy purpose.

Menelaus.
How ? — hath he flesh invulnerable of steel ? 8io

Helen.

That shalt thou prove. None wise dares hopeless

venture.

Menelaus.

How, shall I tamely let them bind mine hands ?

Helen.
Thou art in a strait : thou need'st some shrewd device.

Menelaus.
Best die in action, not with folded hands.

Helen.
One hope there is whereby we might be saved — 815

IMenelaus.
By bribes, by daring, or by cunning speech ?

Helen.
If but the king may know not of thy coming.

Menelaus.
Who will betray me ? He shall know me not.

Helen.
An ally wise as Gods he hath within.

HELEN. 301

Menelaus.
A Voice that haunts dark crypts within his halls ? 820

Helen.
Nay, but his sister : Theonoe her name.

Menelaus.
Oracular the name : — what doth she ? — say.

Helen.
All things she knows ; — shall tell him thou art here.

Menelaus.
Then must I die, for hid I cannot be.

Helen.
What if by prayers we might prevail with her — 825

Menelaus.
To do what deed ? — to what hope lur'st thou me ?

Helen.
To tell her brother of thy presence nought ?

Menelaus.
Prevailing so, our feet might flee the land ?

Helen.
Lightly, if she connive : in secret, no.

Menelaus.
Essay thou : woman toucheth woman's heart. 830

302 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
Surely mine hands about her knees shall cling.

Menelaus.
Hold — what if she will none of our appeal ?

Helen.
Thou diest : and I, woe's me, shall wed perforce.

Menelaus.
Thou shouldst be traitress — false the plea of force !'

Helen.
Nay, by thine head I swear a solemn oath — 835

Menelaus.
How ? — wilt thou die ere thou desert thy lord ?

Helen.
Yea, by this sword : beside thee will I lie.

Menelaus.
Then, for this pledge, lay thou thine hand in mine.

Helen.
I clasp — I swear to perish if thou fall.

I We are not compelled to understand, with Paley and
others, that Menelaus, in his desperation, suddenly suspects
his wife of wishing to betray him. His words may mean —
" In that case you would be false to me, for no woman can
really be forced into a sinful connexion ; " — i.e. if she values
honour above life : and so Helen evidently understands him,
for she hastens to reassure him on this point.

HELEN.

303

Menelaus.
And I, of thee bereft, to end my life. 840

Helen.
How, dying, shall we then with honour die ?

Menelaus.

On the tomb's crest thy life I'll spill, then mine.

But first in strife heroic will I strive

For thee, beloved : let who dare draw nigh.

I will not shame the glory achieved at Troy, 845

Nor flee to Greece, to meet a nation's scoff.

I, — I, who Thetis of Achilles spoiled.

Who saw Telamonian Aias slaughtered lie,

And childless Neleus' son^ — for mine own wife

Shall I not count me man enough to die ? 850

Yea, verily : — for, if the Gods are wise,

The valiant man who dies by foemen's hands

With dust light-sprinkled on his tomb they shroud,

But dastards forth on barren rock they cast.

Chorus.

Gods, grant at last fair fortune to the line 855

Of Tantalus, and rescuing from ills !

Helen.

Woe, hapless I ! — my lot is cast in woe !
Undone, Menelaus ! — from the hall comes forth

I Nestor, whose son Antilochus was killed. Menelaus is
not referring to any record of his own prowess or impor-
tance, but instancing better men than himself who so freely
gave their lives in another's cause.

304 EURIPIDES.

Theonoe the seer : the palace clangs

With bolts shot back : — flee ! — yet to what end flee ? 860

Present or absent still she knows of thee,

How thou art come. O wretched I, undone !

Thou, saved from Troy and from the alien land,

Hast come to fall again by alien swords !

Enter Theonoe attired ns a priestess, with train of
handmaids in solemn procession.

Theonoe {to a torch-hearer).

Thou, bearing splendour of torches, pass before ; 865

In solemn ritual incense all the air.

That pure heaven's breath may be, ere we receive it.

And thou, if any have marred our path with tread

Of foot unclean, sweep o'er it cleansing flame.

And shake the torch before, that I may pass. 870

And, when ye have paid the Gods my wonted service,

Bear back again the hearth-flame to the halls.

Attendants pass on.
Helen, how fall my words prophetic now ?
Thy lord is come, Menelaus, here in sight.
Spoiled of his ships, and of thy counterfeit. 875

Hapless, escaped what perils art thou come.
Unsure of home-return or tarrying here !
For strife in heaven and high debate shall be
On this day in Zeus' presence touching thee.
Hera, who was thy foe in days gone by, 880

Is gracious now, would bring thee with thy wife
Safe home, that Hellas so may learn the cheat
Of Alexander's bridal, Kypris' gift.
But Kypris fain would wreck thine home-return.
That her shame be not blazoned, hers who bought 885

HELEN. 305

The prize of Fair with Helen's shadowy^ hand.

The issue rests with me — to tell my brother,

As Kypris would, thy presence, ruining thee,

Or, standing Hera's ally, save thy life.

Hiding it from my brother, who bids that I 890

Declare it, when thou comest to our shore.

\^A pause.]
Go, some one, tell my brother that this man
Is here, that I of peril clear may stand.

Helen.

O maiden, suppliant at thy knee I fall,

And, in the posture of the unhappy, bow 895

Both for myself and this man, whom at last,

Scarce found, I am in peril to see slain !

Ah, tell not to thy brother that my lord.

My best-beloved, hath come unto mine arms ;

But save us, I implore thee ! To thy brother 900

Never betray thy reverence for the right,

Buying his gratitude by sin and wrong.

For God abhorreth violence, bidding all

Not by the spoiler's rapine get them gain.

Away with wealth — the wealth amassed by wrong 1^

For common to all mortals is heaven's air, [905

And earth, whereof men ought to store their homes.

Not keep nor wrest by violence others' goods.

1 Reading dvov^rots for oij/r^Tois, " with Helen's hand for
bribe." The real discredit to Aphrodite lay, not in her
bribing the judge, wherein she was no worse than Hera and
Pallas, but in the fact that payment was made with a
counterfeit instead of the reality.

2 A line generally regarded as an interpolation.

Vol. II. X.

3o6 EURIPIDES.

Me for mine happiness — yet for my sorrow — ^

To thy sire Hermes gave, to ward for him, gio

My lord, who now is here, who claims his own.

Slain, how should he regain me, or thy sire

How render back the living to the dead ?

0 have regard to God's will and thy sire's !

Would Heaven, would the dead king, render back 915
Their neighbour's goods, or would they not consent ?
Yea, would they, I trow ! Thou shouldst not have

respect
To wanton brother more than righteous sire.
If thou, a seer, who dost believe in God,
Thy father's righteous purpose shalt pervert, 920

And to thine unjust brother do a grace,
'Twere shame that thou shouldst know all things divine.
Present and future, — yet not know the right.
Now me, the wretched, whelmed in misery.
Save, and vouchsafe us this our fortune's crown. 925
For there is none but hateth Helen now.
Through Hellas called forsaker of my lord
To dwell in gold-abounding Phrygian halls.
But if to Greece I come, in Sparta stand.
Then, hearing, seeing, that by heaven's device 930
They died, nor was I traitress to my friends.
They shall restore me unto virtue's ranks ;

1 shall betroth the child none now will wed ;
And, leaving this my bitter homelessness.

Shall I enjoy the treasures in mine home. 935

Lo, if my lord had died, slain on some pyre,^

1 Retaining, with Paley, MS. fiaKaptwS'

2 Like the Trojan captives whom Achilles slew at the
pyre of Patroclus. (//. xxiii, 175).

HELEN. 307

My love should weep his memory though afar :

Now, living, saved, shall he be torn from me ?

Ah, maiden, not — I implore thee, O not that !

Grant me this grace ; so follow in the steps 940

Of thy just sire. 'Tis children's fairest praise,

When one begotten of a noble sire

Is noble, treading in his father's steps.

Chorus.

Piteous thy pleading comes to stay her hand :
Piteous thy plight is. But I fain would hear 945

What words Menelaus for his life will speak.

Menelaus.

I cannot brook to cast me at thy knee,
Nor drown mine eyes with tears ; else should I shame
Troy utterly, in turning craven thus.
And yet, men say, it is a hero's part 950

In trouble, from his eyes to shed the tear.
Yet not this seemly part — if seemly it be —
Will I choose rather than stoutheartedness.
But, if thou wilt befriend a stranger, me
Who seek, yea justly, to regain my wife, 955

Restore her, save withal : if thou wilt not,
Not now first shall I taste of misery,
But thou shalt stand convict of wickedness.^
Yet, that which worthy of myself I count.
And just, — yea, that which most shall touch thine
heart, — 960

' i.e. You will be a greater sufferer than I, since you have
never before been esteemed aught but righteous.

3o8 EURIPIDES.

This will I speak, bowed at thy father's grave. ^

0 ancient, dweller in this tomb of stone.
Restore thy trust : I claim of thee my wife,
Sent hither of Zeus to thee, to ward for me.

1 know that thou, the dead, canst ne'er restore : 965
But this thy child will think scorn that her sire.
Glorious of old, from the underworld invoked,

Have infamy, — for now it rests with her.

0 Hades, on thy championship I call.

Who hast welcomed many dead, for Helen's sake 970

Slain by my sword : thou hast them for thine hire.

Or give them back with life's breath filled again,

Or thou constrain this maid to show her worthy

Of a good sire, and render back my wife.

But if ye will despoil me of my bride, 975

That which to thee she said not will I say : —

Know, maiden, I have bound me by an oath

To dare thy brother, first, unto the fight :

Then he or I must die, my word is passed.

But if he flinch from grappling foot to foot, 980

And seek to starve the suppHants at the tomb,

1 am resolved to slay her, then to thrust
Into mine own heart this two-edged sword

On this tomb's crest, that streams of our life-blood

May drench the grave : so shall we side by side, 985

Two corpses, lie upon this carven tomb,

To be thy deathless grief, thy sire's reproach.

Her shall thy brother never wed— nor he.

Nor any other : — I will bear her hence,

If home I may not, then unto the dead. ggo

Why speak thus ? If with tears I played the woman,

I Reading vreo-wv (Nauck). Al. iroOu), " Mourning thy lost
sire, at his grave I speak."

HELEN. 309

A pitiful thing were I, no man of deeds.

Slay, if thou wilt : thou shalt not slay and shame !

Yet do thou rather hearken to my words,

That thou be just, that I may win my wife. 995

Chorus.

Maiden, of these pleas art thou arbitress.

So judge, that thou may'st pleasure all at last.

Theonoe.

By nature and by choice I fear the Gods.

I love mine own soul, and my sire's renown

I will not stain, nor show my brother grace 1000

Wherefrom shall open infamy be his :^

And the great temple of Justice in my soul

Stands. Since from Nereus I inherit this,

I will essay to save Menelaus' life.

With Hera, seeing she fain would favour thee, 1005

I cast my vote. Gracious to me withal

Be Kypris, though she hath had no part in me.

And I will strive to abide a maiden aye.

For thy reproaches o'er my father's grave,

I make them mine ; for I should work foul wrong, loio

If I restored not. He, if yet he lived.

Had given back her to thee, and thee to her.

Yea, these things bring to all men recompense

In Hades as on earth. Albeit the soul

Of the dead live not,^ deathless consciousness 1015

Still hath it when in deathless aether merged.

1 Paley prefers cfiavrjo-oiMai, " be mine."

2 i.e. Have no individual existence, being absorbed into
its kindred element.

3IO EURIPIDES.

But, to make brief end, I will hold my peace

Of all ye have prayed of me, nor ever be

Co-plotter with my brother's wantonness.

I do him service, though it seem not so, 1020

Who turn him unto righteousness from sin.

Yet how to escape must ye yourselves devise :

I from your path will stand, will hold my peace.

With prayer to Gods begin ye : supplicate

Kypris to grant return to fatherland. 1025

Thou, pray that Hera's mind abide unchanged,

Her will for thy deliverance and thy lord's.

And thou, dead sire, so far as in me lies.

Impious for righteous ne'er shalt be misnamed.

[_Exit.
Chorus.

None prospered ever by unrighteousness : 1030

In righteousness all hope of safety dwells.

Helen.

Menelaus, for the maiden safe we are.
Thou, for the rest, give counsel to devise
A path of safety alike for thee and me.

Menelaus.

Hearken. Long hast thou dwelt beneath yon roof 1035
Co-inmate with the servants of the king : —

Helen.

W^hy say'st thou this ? Thou givest hint of hopes,
As thou wouldst work deliverance for us twain.

Menelaus.

Couldst thou persuade some warder of four-horse cars
To give to us a chariot and steeds ? 1040

HELEN. 311

Helen.

I might persuade — yet what avails our flight
Who know these plains not, nor the alien's land ?

Menelaus.

Thou hast named a hopeless bar. Lo, should I hide
Within, and slay the king with this keen sword ?

Helen.

His sister would not suffer thee, nor spare 1045

To tell thy purposed murder of her kin.

Menelaus.

No ship have we wherein we might escape
Fleeing ; for that I had the sea hath whelmed.

Helen.

Hearken — if woman's lips may wisdom speak : —
Wouldst thou consent, ere death, in name to die ? 1050

Menelaus.

Evil the omen : yet, if this shall help,
Ready I am, ere death, in name to die.

Helen.

Yea, with shorn hair and dirges will I mourn thee
Before the tyrant, after woman's wont,

Menelaus.

What salve of safety for us twain hath this ? 1055

Sooth, the device is something overworn !^

I Menelaus intimates that such a trick might prove to
have been tried once too often. Moreover, an apology to

312 EURIPIDES.

Helen.

As thou hadst died at sea, I'll pray the king
For leave to entomb thee in a cenotaph.

Menelaus.

This granted, how shall we without a ship

Escape by raising this void tomb for me ? 1060

Helen.

A vessel will I beg, to cast therefrom
Into the sea's arms burial-gifts for thee.

Menelaus.

Well said, save but for this — if he bid rear
On land my tomb, fruitless is thy pretence.

Helen.

Nay, will we say, this is not Hellas' wont, 1065

On land to bury such as die at sea.

Menelaus.

This too thou rightest. I with thee embark,
And in the same ship help to stow the gifts.

the audience may be hinted for the employment of a device
now somewhat staled, since it may have been utilized in a
score of plays besides the Cho'cphora: and Electra (of Sopho-
cles). Possibly the point may be that, though out of the
question in Greece, it was good enough for a barbarian.
Hermann (followed by Paley), would read airaLoXrj, " Sooth
in thy words a cunning stratagem lurks ; " but the argu-
ments for it do not seem strong, for 1. 1055, as well as M.'s
two following speeches, intimate that he was thoroughly
sceptical as to the utility of the proposal ; and so yap
naturally introduces his reason.

HELEN. 313

Helen.

Of all things chiefly, needs must thou be there,

And all thy crew which from the wreck escaped. 1070

Menelaus.

Let me but at her moorings find a ship,

And man by man shall they stand girt with swords.

Helen.

'Tis thou must order all : let wafting winds
But fill the sail, and good speed to the keel !

Menelaus.

This shall be, for the Gods will end my toils. 1075

But of whom wilt thou say thou heard'st my death ?

Helen.

Of thee. Say, thou alone escapedst doom,

Who sail'dst with Atreus' son, and saw'st him die.

Menelaus.

Yea, and these rags about my body cast

Shall witness as to salvage from the wreck. 1080

Helen.

In season saved, nigh out of season lost !
That sore mischance may turn to fortune fair.

Menelaus.

Into the palace with thee shall I pass,
Or by the tomb here tarry sitting still ?

314 EURIPIDES.

Helen.

Here stay : if he would do thee any hurt, 1085

This tomb and thine own sword shall keep thee safe.

But I will pass within, will shear mine hair,

And sable vesture for white robes will don.

And with the blood-stained nail will scar my cheek.

'Tis a grim strife, and issues twain I see : 1090

Or I must die, if plotting I am found.

Or see the home-land and redeem thy life.

O Queen, who restest on the couch of Zeus,

Hera, to hapless twain grant pause from ills.

We pray, with arms flung upward to the sky, 1095

Thy mansion wrought with arabesques of stars.

And thou, by mine hand winner of beauty's prize,

Kypris, Dione's child, destroy me not !

Enough the scathe thou hast done me heretofore.

Lending my name, not me, to alien men : iioo

But let me die, if 'tis thy will to slay.

In home-land. Why insatiate of wrong

Dost thou use loves, deceits, and guile's inventions.

And love-spells dark with blood of families ?

Wouldst thou in measure come, thou wert to men 1105

Else kindest of the Gods : I hold this truth.

[^Exit.
Chorus.

{Str. i)
O thou in thine halls of song abiding.

Under the greenwood leaves deep-hiding,

I hail thee, I hail.
Nightingale, queen by thy notes woe-thrilling mo
Of song-birds, come, through thy brown throat trilling
Notes tuned to my wail.
As of Helen's grief and pain
And of Ilium's daughters' tears

HELEN. 315

I sing, how they stooped them to thraldom's chain
Beneath the Achaian spears.

They were doomed, when from Sparta hied

That bridegroom accursed, to ride
O'er the foam-blossomed plain, for the Priamids' bane —

O Helen, thou seemest the bride, 1120

And the Love-queen steers !

{Ant. 1)

And Achaians many, by stones down-leaping

And by spear-thrusts sped, are in Hades sleeping ;

And in sorrow for these

Was their wives' hair shorn in their widowed bowers :

And the beacon-lights glared on the headland that

lowers

O'er Euboean seas ;

So that lone voyager' hurled

Many Greeks on Kaphereus' scaur

And Aegean skerries where wild surf swirled, 1130

When he lit that treachery-star.

And by havenless cliffs hast thou passed^

Driven far from thy land by the blast

With thy prize — no prize, but by Hera's device

A cloud-wraith in mid-lists cast

Of the Danaans' war.

{Str. 2)

Who among men dare say that he, exploring

Even to Creation's farthest limit-line.
Ever hath found the God of our adoring.

That which is not God, or the half-divine — 1140

1 Nauplius (see note on 1. 7G7) hastily left Troy in a
fishing-boat, before the Greek fleet sailed, in order to make
his preparations for wrecking it.

2 There is no certainty as to exact text of original.

3i6 EURIPIDES.

Who, that beholdeth the decrees of Heaven

This way and that in hopeless turmoil swayed ?
Daughter of Zeus art thou, to Leda given,

Helen, by Him in plumes of swan arrayed ;
Yet wert thou cursed — " Unrighteous, god-despising,

Traitress, and faithless,'' Hellas deemed thy due !
Nought I find certain, for all man's surmising :

Only Gods' words have I found utter-true. 1150

{Ant. 2)
Madmen, all ye who strive for manhood's guerdons

Battling with shock of lances, seeking ease
Senselessly so from galling of life's burdens !

Never, if blood be arbitress of peace.
Strife between towns of men shall find an ending :

Lo, how its storm o'er homes of Ilium brake,'
Yea, though fair words might once have wrought
amending,

Helen, of wrong, of quarrel for thy sake ! 1160

Now are her sons in depths of Hades lying ;

Flame o'er her walls leapt, like Zeus' levin-glare :
Woes upon woes, and unto captives sighing

Sorer afflictions still — thy gifts they were.

Enter Theoklynienus, with Iiomtds, and attendants
carrying weapons, nets, spoils of the chase, etc.

Theoklymenus.

Hail, my sire's tomb ! — for at my palace-gate, 1165
Proteus, I buried thee, to greet thee so :
Still as I enter and pass forth mine halls,

' The text seems hopelessly corrupt. I have followed
Jerram's conjecture as to general sense.

HELEN.

317

Thee, father, I thy son Theoklymenus hail.
Ho ye, my men, the hounds and hunting-nets
Unto the palace kennels take away. 11 70

[^Exeunt attendants.
Many a time have I reproached myself
That I have punished not yon knaves with death !
Lo, now I hear of some Greek openly
Come to my land, eluding all my guards, —
Some spy, or one that prowls to kidnap hence 1175
Helen. Die shall he, so he but be caught.
Ha!

Lo, all my plans, meseemeth, have I found
Frustrate ! — for Tyndareus' child hath left her seat
By the tomb void, and from the land hath sailed !
What ho ! unbar the gates ! — loose from the stalls 1 180
The steeds, mine henchmen ! — bring the chariots

forth,
That not for pains untried by me the wife
I long for may escape the land unmarked.
Nay, hold your hands ! I see whom we would chase
There in the palace standing, nowise fled. 1185

Re-enter Helen.

Thou, why hast thou attired thee in dark robes.
Thy white cast off, and from thy queenly head
Hast thou with sweep of steel thy tresses shorn.
And wettest with fast-streaming' tears thy cheeks
Weeping ? Mourn'st thou by visions of the night 1190
Soul-shaken, 2 or for some dread inward voice
Heard, is thy spirit thus distraught with grief ?

1 Or, as others interpret, " with tears of wan-hued grief."

2 Reading (Te(TU(T/j.evrj.

3i8 EURIPIDES.

Helen.

My lord, — for now I name thee by this name, —
Undone ! — mine hopes are fled ; I am but naught !

Theoklymenus.

In what affliction liest thou ? What hath chanced ? 1 195

Helen.

Menelaus — woe's me ! — how to speak it ? — dead !

Theoklymenus.

I triumph not at thy words, yet am blest.

Helen.

[Let my lord pardon that I joy not — yet.]'

Theoklymenus.

How know'st thou ? Hath Theonoe told thee this ?

Helen.

Even she, and he who when he died was there.

Theoklymenus.

How, is one here to tell this certainly ? 1200

Helen.

Is here : — would he might come as I desire !

1 Inserted conjecturally to supply the lacuna. The
" Tragic Irony " is very marked throughout this scene,
Helen's words being frequently susceptible of a very differ-
ent interpretation from that which the king puts upon them.

HELEN. 319

Theoklymknus.
Who is he ? — where ? — that I be certified.

Helen.
Yon man who sitteth cowering at the tomb.

Theoklymenus.
Apollo ! — lo, how marred his vesture shows !

Helen.
Ah me, so showeth now my lord, I ween ! 1205

Theoklymenus.
Of what land ? — and whence sailed he to our shore ?

Helen.
Greek, an Achaian, shipmate of my lord.

J Theoklymenus.

By what death says he Menelaus died ?

Helen.
Most piteously, in whelming surge of brine.'

Theoklymenus.
And where on alien waters voyaging ? 12 10

Helen.
On havenless rocks of Libya cast away.

I The Greeks had a special horror of death by drowning,
and, indeed, by any form of suffocation. Cf. Tempest i, i.
•' I would fain die a dry death."

320 EURIPIDES.

Theoklymenus.
How perished this man not, who shared his voyage ?

Helen.
Whiles are the base-born more than heroes blest.

Theoklymenus.
And, hither faring, where left he the wreck ?

Helen.
Where ruin seize it ! — but not Menelaus.' 1215

Theoklymenus.
Ruin hath seized him. What ship brought this man ?

Helen.
Some, voyaging, found, and took him up, he saith.

Theoklymenus.
Where is that bane, in thy stead sent to Troy ?

Helen.
The cloud-wraith mean'st thou ? Into air it passed.

Theoklymenus.
O Priam, Troyland, ruined all for nought ! 1220

I Helen evades an awkward question, which might lead
to a search for the wreck, and to the discovery of the sur-
vivors, by the equivalent of " I neither know nor care 1
Perish the ship, if only Menelaus might not have perished
with it I " The king's answer impHes " He is past praying
for."

HELEN. 321

Helen.
I too have shared the Priamids' dark doom.

Theoklymenus.
Left he thy lord unburied, or entombed him ?

Helen.
Unburied — woe is me ! Alas mine ills !

Theoklymenus.
For this cause hast thou shorn thy golden hair ?

Helen,
Yea, dear he is, whate'er he be' — he is here.^ 1225

Theoklymenus.
Is this misfortune real, thy tears unfeigned ?

Helen.
O yea, thy sister's ken were lightly 'scaped !

Theoklymenus.
Nay, sooth. How then, wilt dwell by this tomb still ?3

1 Cf. In Memoriam, cvi, " We will drink to him, whate'er
he be."

2 Laying her hand upon her heart (Heath). But the
line is suspected ; one suggested emendation is — ^tA.os yap
rjv, ocrris ttot ccttii/, IvOdK w, "Yea; dear he was — what-
e'er he be — in life."

3 " When, your husband being dead, you need no longer
reject me."

Vol. n. Y.

322 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
Why dost thou mock me ? Let the dead man be.

Theoklymenus.
So loyal to thy lord, thou shunnest me. 1230

Helen.
No more will I : prepare my bridal now.

Theoklymenus.
Late comes it, yet with praise and thanks of me !

Helen.
Know'st then thy part ? Let us forget the past.

Theoklymenus.
Thy terms ? — since favour is for favour due.

Helen.
Let us make truce : be reconciled to me. 1235

Theoklymenus.
I put away our feud : let it take wings.

Helen.
Now then by these thy knees, since friend thou art —

Theoklymenus.
What seekest thou with suppliant arms outstretched ?

Helen.
The dead, mine husband, fain would I entomb.

HELEN. 323

Theoklymenus.

[1240
How ? — for the lost a grave ? — wouldst bury a shade ?

Helen.

'Tis Hellene wont, whoso is lost at sea —

Theoklymenus.

To do what ? Wise are Pelops' sons herein.

Helen.

With garments shrouding nought to bury them.

Theoklymenus.

Perform the rite : raise where thou wilt his tomb.

Helen.

Not thus we bury mariners cast away. 1245

Theoklymenus.

How then ? Of Hellene wont I nothing know.

Helen.

We put out seaward with the corpse's dues.

Theoklymenus.

What shall I give thee for the dead man then ?

Helen {pointing to Menelaiis).

He knows.' Unskilled am I — happy ere this !

' oK 0I8' (Nauck) vice the usual reading, " I know not."

324 EURIPIDES.

Theoklymenus.
Stranger, glad tidings dost thou bring to me. 1250

Menelaus.
For me not glad, nor yet for that dead man.

Theoklymenus.
How do ye bury dead men lost at sea ?

Menelaus.
According to the substance' of each friend.

Theoklymenus.
If wealth be all, for her sake speak thy wish.

Menelaus.
First is blood shed, an offering to the shades. 1255

Theoklymenus.
The victim ? — tell thou, and I will perform.

Menelaus.
Decide thou : that thou givest shall suffice.

Theoklymenus.
My people use to slay a horse or bull.

Menelaus.
If thou wilt give, give worthily of a king.

I Might there be a play on ovaia, in sense of existence ?
— "if our friend really exists (as in this case) we should not
bury him."

HELEN. 325

Theoklymenus.

Of such in my fair herds I have no lack. 1260

Menelaus.

Next, a decked bier is borne, no corpse thereon.

Theoklymenus.

This shall be. What beside doth custom add ?

Menelaus.

Arms forged of bronze, for well he loved the spear.

Theoklymenus.

These, our gifts, shall be worthy Pelops' line.

Menelaus.

Therewith, all increase fair that earth brings forth. 1265

Theoklymenus.

How then ? — how cast ye these into the surge ?

Menelaus.

There needeth here a ship with rowers manned.

Theoklymenus.

And how far speedeth from the strand the keel ?

Menelaus.

So that from land the foam- wake scarce is seen.

Theoklymenus.

[1270

Now wherefore ? Why doth Greece observe this use ?

326 EURIPIDES.

Menelaus.

Lest the surge sweep pollution back to shore.

Theoklymenus.

Phoenician oars shall traverse soon the space

Menelaus.

'Twere well done, and a grace to Menelaus.

Theoklymenus.

Dost thou not, without her, suffice for this ?

Menelaus.

This must be done by mother, wife, or child. 1275

Theoklymenus.

Hers then the task, thou say'st, to entomb her lord ?

Menelaus.

Yea, piety bids not rob the dead of dues.

Theoklymenus.

Let her go : — best to foster in my wife

Piety. From mine halls the death-dues take.

Nor empty-handed will I send thee hence, 1280

For this thy kindness shown her. For good news

Thou hast brought me, raiment in thy bare rags' stead

And food shalt thou have, so that thou may'st come

To Greece, whom now I see in sorriest plight.

And, hapless, thou fret not thine heart away 1285

Without avail. Menelaus hath his doom,

And thy dead husband cannot live again.

HELEN. 327

Menelaus.

Princess, thy part is this : with him who is now

Thy lord, content thee ; him who is not let be,

As best it is for thee in this thy plight. 1290

And if to Greece I come, and safety win.

Then will I take thine old reproach away.

If now thou prove true wife to thine own spouse.

Helen.

This shall be : never shall my lord blame me.
Thou shalt thyself be near, and witness this. 1295

Now, toil-tried one, pass in, and taste the bath.
And change thy raiment. I will tarry not
In kindness to thee : thou with more good will
Shalt pay all dues to my beloved lord,
Menelaus, if thou have thy due of us. 1300

\_Exeunt Menelaus, Helen, and Theoklymenus.

Chorus.^

{Sir. I)
The Mountain-goddess,^ with feet swift-racing.

Mother of Gods, rushed onward of yore

By glens of the forest in frenzied chasing,

By the new-born rivers' cataract-roar,

By the thunderous surge of the sea wind-tost,

In anguished quest for a daughter lost

Whose name is unuttered in prayer or praising ;3

I The relevance of this ode to the action of the drama
is ably maintained by Moulton, Ancient Classical Drama,
pp. 181-2.

- Demeter, who is here invested with some of the attri-
butes of Cybele.

3 Persephone's name was not uttered in ritual, for fear of
re-awakening Demeter's grief.

328 EURIPIDES.

And a peal far-piercing the echoes bore
As clashed the Bacchanal's Castanet ;
And beasts of the wold by her spells controlled 1310
'Neath the yoke of the Goddess's chariot met :
And with her for her child, by the ravisher parted

From the virgins' dances, on that wild quest
The storm-footed Maiden-goddesses darted,
Even Artemis Queen of the Bow, and pressed
At her side with her spear and her panoply
Stern-eyed Pallas' : — but Zeus, throned high
In the heavens, looked down, and their purpose
thwarted,
And ordered the issue as seemed him best.

{Ant. i)
When ceased the Mother from weary faring

Of feet wide-wandering to and fro, 1320

Seeking the daughter whom hands ensnaring
Had ravished whitherward none might know,
Then over the watchtower peaks did she tread
Of the Nymphs of Ida, the snow's birth-bed,
And earthward flung her in grief's despairing
Mid the rocky thickets deep in snow :

And she caused that from herbless plains of earth
No blade should shoot for the tilth-land's fruit,
And she wasted the tribes of men with dearth :
And the cattle for tendril-sprays lush-traiHng 1330

Looked yearning with famishing eyes in vain ;
And from many and many the life was failing.
Nor the sacrifice-smoke made misty the fane ;
Nor on altars were found meal-cakes to burn :
And she sealed the spray-dashed mountain-urn

I I have adopted the restoration of this passage suggested
by Paley.

HELEN. 329

From pouring the wan stream forth, aye waiUng

For her child with inconsolable pain.

{Str. 2)

And the Gods' feasts failed from the altars fuming,

And for men the staff of bread she brake.

Then Zeus, to assuage the wrath overglooming

The soul of the Mighty Mother, spake : 1340

" Pass down, O Worshipful Ones, ye Graces,

And from Deo banish her wrath's dark traces.

And the grief that hath driven through desolate

places

A mother distraught for a daughter's sake.

Go ye too, Muses, with dance and with singing."

Then first of the Blessed Ones Kypris the fair

Caught up the brass of the voice deep-ringing,

And the skin-strained tambourine she bare.

Then Demeter smiled, and forgat her grieving,

In her hands for a token of peace receiving 1350

The flute of the deep wild notes far-cleaving

The gorges ; and gladness lulled her care.

{Ant. 2)
Princess, did flame unconsecrated

Of rites unhallowed in thy bowers shine,'
And so of the Mighty Mother hated

Wast thou ? — O child, and was this sin thine,
To have lived of the Goddess's altar unrecking ?
Yet atonement may come of the fawn-skin decking
Thy limbs, bedappled with dark spots flecking
Its brown, and if greenness of ivy twine 1360

I Of the two interpretations of this probably corrupt
passage, that which conveys a conjecture of remissness in
sacrifice (cf. Hippolytus, 145 — 150) is more probable than a
reference to an intrigue with Paris, the existence of which,
for the real Helen, had been disproved, and any suggestion
of which would have implied insulting scepticism.

330 EURIPIDES.

Round the sacred fennel-wand lightly shivering,

And if whirled through the air the tambour moan
As it swings, as it rings, to the Hght touch quivering,
And if Bacchanal hair to the winds shall be thrown,
When the Goddess's vigils are revelling nightly,
And the shafts of the moon's bow touch them

lightly,
Shot from the heights where her eyes gleam
brightly.
Repent — thou didst trust in thy fairness alone.

Enter Helen.

Helen.

Within the palace all is well, my friends ;

For Proteus' child, confederate with us, 1370

Being questioned, hath not told her brother aught

Of my lord's presence, but for my sake saith

That dead he seeth not on earth the light.

Right happily my lord hath won these arms.

Himself hath donned the mail that he should cast 1375

Into the sea, hath thrust his stalwart arm

Into the shield-strap, grasped in hand the spear,

As who should join in homage to the dead, —

In season for the fray hath harnessed him.

As who shall vanquish aliens untold 1380

Singly, when once we tread the galley's deck.

He hath doffed his wreckage rags for the attire

Wherein I have arrayed him, and have given

His limbs the bath, long lacked, of river-dew.

— No more, for forth comes one who deems he holds

My marriage in the hollow of his hand : [1385

I must be silent, and thy loyalty

I claim, and sealed lips, that we haply may,

Ourselves delivered, one day save thee too.

HELEN. 331

Enter Theoklymenus and Menelaus, with train of
attendants bearing funeral offerings.

Theoklymenus.

Pass on in order, as the stranger bade, 1390

Thralls, bearing offerings destined to the sea.
Helen, thou — if thou take not ill my words —
Be ruled by me, here stay : for thou shalt serve
Thy lord alike, or be thou there or not.
I fear thee, lest some thrill of yearning pain i395

Move thee to fling thy body mid the surge.
Distraught with love for him who was thy lord ;
For overmuch thou mournest him, who is not.

Helen.

O my new spouse, needs must I honour him.

My first love, who embraced me as a bride : 1400

Yea, I for very love of that my lord

Could die, — yet whereifi should I pleasure him

If with the dead I died ? Nay, suffer me

Myself to go and pay him burial-dues :

So the Gods grant thee all the boons I wish, 1405

And to this stranger, for his help herein.

And such wife shalt thou find me in thine halls

As meet is, for thy kindness to my lord

And me ; for these things to fair issue tend.

Now bid one give a ship wherein to bear 1410

The gifts, that so thy kindness may be full.

Theoklymenus {to attendajit).

Go thou, and give these a Sidonian ship
Of fifty oars, and rowers therewithal.

332 EURIPIDES.

Helen.
The rites who ordereth, shall not he command ?

Theoklymenus.
Yea surely ; him my sailors must obey. 141 5

Helen.
Speak it again, that all may understand.

Theoklymenus.
Twice I command, yea, thrice, if this thou wilt.

Helen.
Blessings on thee — and me, in mine intent !

Theoklymenus.
Waste not with tears thy fair bloom overmuch.

Helen.
This day shall prove to thee my gratitude. 1420

Theoklymenus.
The dead are naught : to toil for them is vain.

Helen.
That world shares, even as this, in all I say.

Theoklymenus.
Me shalt thou prove no worse than Menelaus.

Helen.
No fault in thee : I need but fortune fair.

HELEN. 333

Theoklymenus.
This rests with thee, so thou yield me true love. 1425

Helen.
I shall not need to learn to love my love.

Theoklymenus.
Wouldst have myself for escort and for aid ?

Helen.
Nay, be not servant to thy servants, King.

Theoklymenus.

Away then : Pelopid wont is nought to me.
Mine house is unpolluted, since not here 1430

Did Menelaus die. Let some one go
And bid my vassal-kings bring marriage-gifts
Unto mine halls. Let all the land break forth
In shouts of happy spousal hymns for Helen
And me, that all may triumph in my joy. 1435

Thou, stranger, go, and into the sea's arms
These offerings cast to Helen's sometime lord,
Then homeward speed again with this my wife.
That, having shared with me her spousal-feast,
Thou may'st fare home, or here abide in bliss. 1440

[Exit.
Attendants pass on with the offerings.

Menelaus.

Zeus, Father art thou called, and the Wise God :
Look upon us, and from our woes redeem ;
And, as we drag our fortunes up the steep,

334 EURIPIDES.

Lay to thine hand : a finger-touch from thee,
And good-speed's haven long-desired we win. 1445

Suffice our travail heretofore endured.
Oft have ye been invoked, ye Gods, to hear
My joys and griefs : not endless ills I merit,
But in plain paths to tread. Grant this one boon.
And happy shall ye make me all my days. 1450

\_Exeunt Menelaus and Helen.

Chorus.

{Str. i)
Swift galley Phoenician of Sidon,

Foam sprang from the travail of thee,
O dear to the sons of the oar :
The dolphin-dance sweepeth before
And behind thee, when breezes no more
Ruffle the sea thou dost ride on,

And thus through the hush crieth she.
Calm,' azure-eyed child of the sea : —
" Shake out the canvas, committing

Your sails to what breezes may blow, 1460

And arow at the pine-blades sitting

Give way, O sailors, yoho !
Till the keel bearing Helen shall slide on
The strand where the old homes be."

{Ant. i)
Perchance by the full-brimming river
On the priestess-maids shalt thou light,
Or haply by Pallas's fane,
And shalt join in the dances again.
Or the revels for Hyacinth slain,

I Galene, " Calm-weather," is named by Hesiod a daugh-
ter of Nereus. {Tlieogony, 244.)

HELEN. 335

When with rapture night's pulses shall quiver 1470
For him whom the overcast quoit
Of Phoebus in contest did smite,'
Whence the God to Laconia's nation

Gave charge that they hallow the day
With slaughter of kine for oblation :—

And thy daughter whom, speeding away,
Ye left, shall ye find, for whom never

Hath the spousal-torch yet flashed bright.

{Sir. 2)
Oh through the welkin on pinions to fleet

Where from Libya far-soaring
The cranes by their armies flee fast from the sleet 1480

And the storm -waters pouring,
By their shepherd, their chief many-wintered, on-led.

At his whistle swift-wheeling,
As o'er plains whereon never the rain-drops were shed,
Yet where vineyards are purple, where harvests are red,

His clarion is pealing : —
O winged ones, who, blent with the cloud-spirits' race,

With necks far-stretching fly on,
'Neath the Pleiades plunge through abysses of space,

'Neath the night-king Orion : 1490

Crying the tidings, down heaven's steep glide.

To Eurotas descending, —
Cry " Atreides hath brought low IHum's pride,
And homeward is wending ! "

{Ant. 2)
And ye, in your chariot o'er highways of sky
O haste from the far land

I The festival of the Hyacinthia was held yearly at Amy-
clae, in memory of Hyacinthus, who was accidentally killed
by the quoit of Apollo, who loved him.

336 EURIPIDES.

Where, Tyndareus' scions, your homes are on high

Mid the flashings of starland :
Ye who dwell in the halls of the Heavenly Home,

Be nigh her, safe guiding 1500

Helen where seas heave, surges comb,
As o'er waves green-glimmering, crested with foam.

Her galley is riding.
To her crew send breezes from Zeus' hand sped

In the sails low-singing,
Your sister's reproach of an alien bed

Afar from her flinging, —
The reproach of the strife upon Ida, whose guilt

Unto her was requited,
Though on Ilium's towers, of Apollo upbuilt, 15 10

Her feet never lighted.

Enter, tneeting, King from palace and Messenger from

harbour.

Messenger.

King, all unwelcome in thine halls I meet thee,'
Since thou must straightway hear of me ill-news.

Theoklymenus.
What now ?

Messenger.

The wooing of another bride
Speed thou, for Helen from the land is gone. 1515

I Reading KaKLcrra a iv, and understanding it of the in-
vidious, and dangerous, position of the bringer of bad
tidings. Cf. misgivings of watchman in Antigone, 11. 223

—243-

HELEN. 337

Theoklymenus.

On wings upborne, or feet that trod the ground ?

Messenger.

Menelaus from the land hath sailed with her, —
He who with tidings of his own death came.

Theoklymenus.

O monstrous tale ! — what galley from this land

Bare her? — for these thy words are past belief. 1520

Messenger.

Even that thou gavest : yea, with thine own men
The stranger went — that briefly thou may'st learn.

Theoklymenus.

How ? — I am fain to know. Never it came

Into my thought that one arm could o'ermatch

So great a crew, with whom thyself wast sent. 1525

Messenger.

Soon as, departing from these royal halls,

The child of Zeus passed down unto the sea.

Pacing with delicate feet, she subtly raised

Wails for the spouse beside her, and not dead.

When to thy docks' wide compass we were come, 1530

The swiftest ship Sidonian launched we then

With full array of fifty thwarts and rowers.

And swiftly task succeeding task was done.

One set the mast up, one ran out the oars

Ready to hand ; the white sails folded lay : 1535

Dropped was the rudder, lashed unto its bands.

Vol. IL Z.

338 EURIPIDES.

Amidst our toil, men watching all, I trow,

Shipmates of Menelaus, Hellenes they,

Came down the strand, in garb of shipwreck clad,

Stalwart, yet weather-beaten to behold. 1540

And, seeing these at hand, spake Atreus' seed,

Making a wily show of pity feigned :

" Hapless, from what Achaian bark, and how,

Come ye from making shipwreck of her hull ?

Would ye help bury Atreus' perished son, ^545

To whom yon Tyndarid queen gives empty tomb ? "

They, shedding tears of counterfeited grief,

Drew nigh the ship, and bare the offerings

For Menelaus. Now mistrust awoke

In us, and murmurings for the added throng 1550

Of passengers : yet still we held our peace.

Heeding thy words, — for thou didst ruin all

In bidding that the stranger captain us.

Now all the victims lightly in the ship

We set, unrestive ; only the bull strained ^555

Backward, nor on the gangway would set foot,

But bellowed still, and, rolling fierce eyes round,

Arching his back, and levelling his horns,

Would let none touch him. Thereat Helen's lord

Cried, " Ye who laid the city of Ilium waste, 1560

Come, hoist aloft in fashion of our Greeks

Yon bull's frame on your shoulders strong with youth,

And cast down in the prow " — and with the word

Drew ready his sword — " a victim to the dead."

They came, and at a signal hoisted high 1565

The bull, and bare, and 'neath the half-deck thrust.

But Menelaus stroked the war-steed's neck

And forehead, and so gently drew it aboard.

When now the ship had gotten all her freight,

HELEN. 339

Helen with slim foot trod the ladder's rounds, 1570

And in the seat amidships sat her down,

And nigh her Menelaus, dead in name.

The rest along the ship's side left and right

Sat man by man, with swords beneath their cloaks

Hidden ; and o'er the surges rolled the chant 1575

Of oarsmen, when we heard the boatswain's note.

But when from land we were not passing far.

Nor nigh, thus spake the warder of the helm :

" Still onward sail we, or doth this suffice.

Stranger ? — for to command the ship is thine." 1580

Then he, " Enough for me." Now, sword in hand.

Prow-ward he went, and stood to slay the bull.

But of no dead man spake he any word ;

But gashed the throat, and prayed — " O Sea-abider,

Poseidon, and ye, Nereus' daughters pure, 1585

Me bring ye and my wife to Nauplia's shores,

Safe from this land." The blood-gush spurted forth —

Fair omen for the stranger — to the surge.

Then cried one, " 'Tis a voyage of treachery this !

Wherefore to Nauplia sail ? Take thou command, 1590

Helmsman ! — 'bout ship ! " But, over the dead bull

Towering, to his allies cried Atreus' son :

" Wherefore delay, O flower of Hellas-land,

To smite, to slay the aliens, and to hurl

Into the sea ? " Then to thy sailors cried ^595

The boatswain overagainst him his command —

" Ho, catch up, some, what spar shall be to hand,

Some break up thwarts, some snatch from thole the oar,

And dash with blood the alien foemen's heads ! "

Up started all, these grasping in their hands 1600

The punt-poles of the ship, and those their swords ;

And all the ship ran blood. Then Helen's cry

340 EURIPIDES.

Rang from the stern — " Where is your Trojan fame ?

Show it against the ahens ! " Furious-grappHng, [1605

Men fell, — men struggled up, — some hadst thou seen

Laid dead. But Menelaus all in mail,

Marking where'er his helpers were hard pressed,

Thither in right hand ever bore his sword.

That from the ship we dived, and of thy men

He swept the thwarts : and, striding to the helm, 1610

He bade the helmsman steer the ship for Greece.

They hoisted sail, the breezes favouring blew ;

And they are gone. I, fleeing from the death,

Slid by the anchor down into the sea.

Even as my strength failed, one cast forth a rope,' 1615

And drew me aboard, so set me on the land.

To tell thee this. Nought is of more avail

For mortals' need than wise mistrustfulness.

Chorus.

King, I had dreamed not Menelaus had 'scaped

Thy ken or mine, here tarrying unknown. 1620

Theoklymenus.

Woe is me, by wiles of woman cozened, caught as in

the net !
Lo, my bride hath fled me ! If their galley might be

taken yet
By pursuers, I had done mine utmost, had the aliens

caught : —
Nay, but now upon my traitress sister be my vengeance

wrought, —

' From some craft near the shore : this seems more prob-
able than from the shore itself (as some understand it), which
couid only be done when he was within wading distance.

HELEN. 341

She who in the palace saw Menelaus, spake no word

to me : 1625

Therefore never man hereafter shall she trick with

prophecy !

Chorus.

Master, whither art thou rushing ? — to what deed of
murderous wrath ?

Theoklymenus.

Even whither justice biddeth follow : — cross not thou
my path !

Chorus.

Nay, I will not loose thy vesture : thou art set on
grievous sin !

Theoklymenus.

Thou, a slave, control thy master !

Chorus.

Yea, my heart is right herein. 1630

Theoklymenus.

Not to me-ward, if thou let me —

Chorus.

Nay, I needs must hinder thee !

Theoklymenus.

That I should not slay my wicked sister —

Chorus.

Nay, most righteous she !

342 EURIPIDES.

Theoklymenus.

Who betrayed me,—

Chorus.

With betrayal honourable, in justice' cause.

Theoklymenus.

Gave my bride unto another !

Chorus.

Yea, to him whose right it was, —

Theoklymenus.

Who hath right o'er my possessions ?

Chorus.

Who received her from her sire. 1635

Theoklymenus.

Fortune gave her me.

Chorus.

But fate did from thine hand the gift require.
Theoklymenus.
'Tis not thine to judge my cause !

Chorus.
O yea, if prudence prompt my tongue.
Theoklymenus.
Subject then am I, not king !

HELEN. 343

Chorus.

For righteousness, and not for wrong.

Theoklymenus.

Fain thou art to die, methinks !

Chorus.

Ah slay me : but thy sister ne'er
Shalt thou kill, with my consent ! — Slay me ! For

noble slaves that dare 1640

Death, to shield their lords, the doom of death is

glorious past compare.

The Twin-brethren appear in air above the stage.

Pollux.

Refrain thy wrath whereby thou art folly-driven,

King of this land, Theoklymenus. Thee we name,

We the Twin-brethren, with whom Leda bare

Helen of yore, who now hath fled thine halls. 1645

Thou art wroth for spousals destined not for thee :

Nor doth the Nereid's daughter do thee wrong,

Theonoe thy sister, reverencing

The Gods' will and her father's just behests.

For this was fate, that to this present still 1650

Within thy mansions Helen should abide :

But, now that Troy's foundations are destroyed,

[And to the Gods she hath lent her name, no more]'

In that same marriage-bond must she be linked :

1 This line is generally rejected. If it be retained, the
next line must refer to the expected marriage on which
Theoklymenus had so confidently built.

344 EURIPIDES.

She must win home, and with her husband dwell. 1655

Hold from thy sister back thy murderous sword :

Know thou, herein she dealeth prudently.

Our sister had we rescued long ere this,

Seeing that Zeus hath made us to be Gods,

But all too weak were we to cope with fate, i66o

And with the Gods, who willed it so to be.

This to thee : — to my sister now I speak :

Sail with thy lord on : ye shall have fair winds ;

And, for thy guardians, we thy brethren twain

Riding the sea will speed thee to thy land. 1665

And when thou hast reached the goal, the end of life,

Thou shalt be hailed a Goddess, with Zeus' sons

Shalt share oblations, and from men receive

Guest-gifts^ with us : this is the will of Zeus.

Where first, from Sparta wafted, thou wast lodged 1670

Of Maia's son, — what time from heaven he stooped.

And stole thy form, that Paris might not wed thee, — -

tThe sentinel isle that flanks the Attic coast
Shall be henceforth of men named Helena,
"Since it received thee stolen from thine home. 1675
To wanderer Menelaus Heaven's doom
Appoints for home the Island of the Blest :
For the Gods hate not princely-hearted men
Who taste more griefs than they of none account. ^

Theoklymenus.

O Sons of Zeus and Leda, I forego 1680

My erstwhile quarrel for your sister's sake,

' The special name given to the sacrificial banquets offered
to the Twin-brethren.

2 (Old translation) " But more the afflictions are of name-
less churls."

HELEN. 345

Nor think to slay my sister any more.

Let Helen, if it please the Gods, speed home.

Know ye yourselves the brethren by one blood

Of noblest sister and most virtuous. 1685

All hail ! for Helen's noble spirit's sake —

Which thing is not in many women found !

Chorus.

O the works of the Gods — in manifold wise they
reveal them :
Manifold things unhoped-for the Gods to accomplish-
ment bring.
And the things that we looked for, the Gods deign not
to fulfil them ; 1690

And the paths undiscerned of our eyes, the Gods un-
seal them.

So fell this marvellous thing.

[Exeunt onines.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES.

ARGUMENT.

Herakles was hated from his birth by Hern, and by
her devices was made subject to Eurystheus, king of
Argos. At his command he performed the great Twelve
Labours, whereof the last was that he should bring up
Cerberus, the Hound of Hades, from the Underworld.
Ere he departed, he committed Amphitryon his father,
with Megara his wife, and his sons, to the keeping of
Kreofi, king of Thebes, and so went down into the Land
of Darkness. Now when he was long time absent, so
that men doubted whether he would ever return, a num
of Eiibcea, named Lykus, was brought into Thebes by
evil-hearted and discontented men, and with these con-
spired against Kreon, and slew him, and reigned in his
stead. Then he sought further to slay all that remained
of the house of Herakles, lest any should in days to come
avenge Kreon's murder. So these, in their sore strait,
took refuge at the altar of Zeus. And herein is told
how, even as they stood under the shadow of death,
Herakles returned for their deliverance, and how in the
midst of that joy and triumph a yet worse calamity was
brought upon them by the malice of Hera.

DRAMATIS PERSONS.

Amphitryon, husband of Alhnena, and reputed father of

Herakles.
Megara, wife of Herakles.
Lykus, a usurper, king of Thebes.
Herakles, son of Zeus and Alkmena.
Iris, a Goddess, messenger of the Gods.
Madness, a demon.
Servant of Herakles.
Theseus, king of Athens.
Chorus, consisting of Theban Elders.
Three young sons of Herakles ; Attendants of Lykus and of

Theseus.
Scene : — At Thebes, before the royal palace. The altar of

Zeus stands in front.

THE MADxNESS OF HERAKLES.

Amphitryon, Megara, and her three sons by Herakles,
seated on the steps of the altar of Zens the Deliverer.

Amphitryon.

Who knows not Zeus's couch-mate, who of men,

Argive Amphitryon, sprung from Perseus' son

Alkaius, father of great Herakles ?

Here in Thebes dwelt he, whence the earth-born crop

Of Sown Men rose, scant remnant of whose race 5

The War-god spared to people Kadmus' town

With children of their children. Sprang from these

Kreon, Menoekeus' son, king of this land,

Kreon, the father of this Megara,

Whose spousals all the sons of Kadmus once 10

Acclaimed with flutes, what time unto mine halls

Glorious Herakles brought home his bride.

But Thebes, wherein I dwelt, and Megara,

And all his marriage-kin, my son forsook.

Yearning to dwell in Argive walls, the town 15

Cyclopian,' whence I am outlawed, since I slew

Elektryon : he, to lighten mine affliction,

I Mycenae, whence Amphitryon, having accidentally
slain Elektryon, his uncle, was banished by Sthenelus,
father of Eurystheus.

352 EURIPIDES.

And fain to dwell in his own fatherland,

Proffered Eurystheus for our home-return'

A great price, even to rid the earth of pests — 20

Or spurred by Hera's goads, or drawn by fate.

And, all the other labours now achieved,

For the last, down the gorge of Tainarus

He hath passed to Hades, to bring up to light

The hound three-headed, whence he hath not returned.

Now an old legend lives mid Kadmus' sons [25

That erstwhile was one Lykus Dirke's spouse.

And of this seven-gated city king.

Ere Zethus and Amphion ruled the land.

Lords of the White Steeds, sprung from loins of Zeus.

And this man's son, who bears his father's name, — [30

No Theban, a Euboean outlander, —

Slew Kreon, and having slain him rules the land,

Falling upon the state sedition-rent.

And mine affinity with Kreon knit 35

Is turned to mighty evil, well I wot.

For, while my son is in the earth's dark heart,

This upstart^ Lykus, ruler of the land.

Would fain destroy the sons of Herakles,

And slay, with blood to smother blood, his wife 40

And me, — if I be reckoned among men,

A useless greybeard, — lest these, grown to man,

Take vengeance for their mother's father's blood.

And I — for me he left his halls within

1 Though Amphitryon had, with his family, been banished
for shedding kindred blood, yet, having been ceremonially
purified from the guilt by Kreon king of Thebes, he might
now return by consent of the ruler of Mycenae.

2 KaLvos vice kXcivos, " glorious " (ironically) ; and so in
line 541.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 353

To ward his sons and foster, with their mother, 45

When down into the earth's black darkness passed

My son, that Herakles' children might not die —

Here at the altar sit of Saviour Zeus,

Which, in thanksgiving for the victory won

O'er Minyan foes, mine hero-scion reared. 50

And, lacking all things, raiment, meat, and drink,

Here keep we session, on the bare hard ground

Laying our limbs ; for desperate of life

Here sit we, barred from homes whose doors are sealed.

And of friends some, I note, are insincere, 55

Some, friends in truth, are helpless for our aid :

Such evil is misfortune unto men.

Never light this on one that loveth me.

Though ne'er so little — friendship's sternest test !

Megara.

Ancient, who once didst smite the Taphians' burg, 60

Captaining gloriously the Theban spears,

How are God's ways with men past finding out !

For never fell my fortunes in my sire.

Who for his wealth was once accounted great,

Secure in kingship — that, for lust whereof 65

Long lances leap against men fortune-throned :

Children had he ; me to thy son he gave.

In glorious spousal joined with Herakles.

Now is all dead — as upon wings hath flown :

And, ancient, thou and I are marked for death, 70

With Herakles' children, whom, as 'neath her wings

A bird her fledglings gathereth, so I keep.

And this and that one falls to questioning still —

" Mother, in what land stays our father ? — tell. [75

What doth he ? When comes ? " In child-ignorance

Vol. II. A A

354 EURIPIDES.

They seek their sire : and still I put them by

With fables feigned ; yet wondering start, whene'er

A door sounds ; and unto their feet leap all, j

As looking to embrace their father's knee.

What hope or path of safety, ancient, now 80

Devisest thou ? — for unto thee I look.

We cannot quit the land's bounds unperceived.

For at all outlets guards too strong are set :

Nor linger hopes of safety any more

In friends. What counsel then thou hast soe'er, 85

Now speak it out, lest death be at the door,

And we, who are helpless, do but peize the time.

Amphitryon.

Daughter, not easily, without deep thought.
May one, though ne'er so earnest, counsel here.'

Megara.

Dost seek more grief, or lov'st thou life so well ? 90

Amphitryon.

In this life I rejoice : I love its hopes.

Megara.

And I : yet for things hopeless none may look.

Amphitryon.

Even in delay is salve for evils found.

' So Paley ; but, according to Hutchinson and Gray,
" Daughter, not easily, nor recklessly.
May one with careless haste give counsel here."

f

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 355

Megara.
But ah the gnawing anguish of suspense !

Amphitryon.

Daughter, a fair-wind course may yet befall 95

From storms of present ills for thee and me.
Yet may he come — my son, thy lord, may come.
Nay, calm thee : stop the fountains welling tears
Of these thy sons, and soothe them with thy words,
Cheating them with a fable — piteous cheat ! 100

Sooth, men's afflictions weary of their work,
And tempest-blasts not alway keep their force ;
The prosperous are not prosperous to the end ;
For all things fleet and yield each other place.
He is the hero, who in steadfast hope 105

Trusts on : despair is but the coward's part.

Enter Chorus, leaning on their staves, and climbing the
ascent to the altar.

Chorus.

{Str.)

Unto the stately temple-roofs, whereby

The ancient coucheth on the ground,
Bowed o'er a propping staff, a chanter I

Whose song rings sorrow round, no

Like some hoar swan I come — a voice, no more,

Like to a night-dream's phantom-show.
Palsied with eld, yet loyal as of yore
To friends of long ago.

Hail, children fatherless ! Hail, ancient, thou !
Hail, mother bowed 'neath sorrow's load,

356 EURIPIDES.

Who mournest for thy lord long absent now

In the Unseen King's abode !

{Ant.)
Let feet not faint, nor let the tired limbs trail

Heavy, as when uphillward strain, 120

Trampling the stones, a young steed's feet that hale
The massy four-wheel wain.

Lay hold on helping hand, on vesture's fold.

Whoso hath failing feet that grope
Blindly : — thy brother, ancient, thou uphold
Up this steep temple-slope,

Thy friend, who once mid toils of battle-peers
Shoulder to shoulder, did not shame —

When thou and he were young, when clashed the
spears, —

His country's glorious name.

{Epode.)

Mark ye how dragon-like glaring 130

As the eyes of the sire whom we knew

Are the eyes of the sons ! — and unsparing

His hard lot followeth too

His sons ; and the kingly mien

Of the sire in the children is seen.

O Hellas, if thou uncaring

Beholdest them slain, what a band

Of champions is lost to our land !

But lo, the ruler of this land I see,
Lykus, unto these mansions drawing nigh.

Enter Lykus.

Lykus.

Thee, sire of Herakles, and thee, his wife, 140

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 357

I ask — if ask I may : — I may, I trow,

Who am your lord, make question as I will : —

How long seek ye to lengthen out your lives ?

What hope, what help from imminent death expect ye ?

Trust ye that he, the sire of these, who lies 145

In Hades, yet shall come ? How basely ye

Upraise a mourning that ye needs must die ! — -

Thou, who through Hellas scatteredst empty vaunts

That Zeus thy couch-mate fathered a new god,

And thou, that thou wast named a hero's wife ! 150

What mighty exploit by thy lord was wrought

In that he killed a hydra of the fen,

Or that Nemean lion ? — -which he snared,

Yet saith he slew with grip of strangling arms !

By these deeds would ye triumph ? — for their sake 155

Must they die not, these sons of Herakles ? —

That thing of nought, who won him valour's name

Battling with beasts, a craven in all else,

Who never to his left arm clasped the shield.

Nor within spear-thrust came ; but with his bow, 160

The dastard's tool, was ever at point to flee !

Bows be no test of manhood's valiancy.

Who bideth steadfast in the ranks, calm-eyed

Facing the spear's swift furrow — a man is he !

Greybeard, no ruthlessness hath this my part, 165

But heedfulness : well know I that 1 slew

Kreon, this woman's sire, and hold his throne.

Therefore I would not these should grow to man.

Left to avenge them on me for my deeds.

Amphitryon.

For Zeus's part — his own son's birth let Zeus 170

Defend : but, Herakles, to me it falls

358 EURIPIDES.

Pleading thy cause to show this fellow's folly.

I may not suffer thee to be defamed.

First, of the lie too foul to speak' — for so,

Herakles, count I cowardice charged on thee, — 175

By the Gods' witness thee I clear of this :

To thunder I appeal, to Zeus's car

Whereon he rode against the earth-born brood,

The Giants, planting winged shafts in their ribs,

And with the Gods pealed forth the victory-chant. 180

Or thou to Pholoe go, most base of kings,

The four-foot monsters ask, the Centaur tribe.

Ask them whom they would count the bravest man.

Whom but my son ? — ^of thee named " hollow show " !

Ask Dirphys, Abas' land, which fostered thee ; 185

It should not praise thee : — place is none wherein

Thy land could witness to brave deed of thine !

And at the bow, the crown of wise inventions.

Thou sneerest ! — learn thou wisdom from my mouth :

The man-at-arms is bondman to his arms, igo

And through his fellows, if their hearts wax faint,

Even through his neighbours' cowardice, he dies.

And, if he break his spear, he hath nought to ward

Death from himself, who hath but one defence.

But whoso grasps in hand the unerring bow, — 195

This first, and best, — lets fly unnumbered shafts.

Yet still hath store wherewith to avert the death.

Afar he stands, yet beats the foemen back,

And wounds with shafts unseen, watch as they will ;

Yet never bares his body to the foe, 200

But is safe-warded ; and in battle this

' Or, according to Sanclys's explanation of the technical
sense of apprjra, " First, of that libel — for a very libel,"

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 359

Is wisest policy, still to harm all foes
That beyond range shrink not, oneself unhurt.
These words have sense opposed full-face to thine
Touching the matter set at issue here. 205

But wherefore art thou fain to slay these boys ?
What have they done ? Herein I count thee wise,
That thou, thyself a dastard, fear'st the seed
Of heroes : yet hard fate is this for us,
If we shall for thy cowardice' sake be slain, 210

As thou by us thy betters shouldst have been,
If Zeus to us were righteously inclined.
Yet, if thy will be still to keep Thebes' crown.
Suffer us exiled to go forth the land ;
But do no violence, lest thou suffer it, 215

When God shall haply cause the wind to change.
Out on it !

0 Land of Kadmus, — for to thee I turn.
Over thee hurling mine upbraiding words, —
Herakles and his sons thus succourest thou,
Even him who met the Minyans all in fight, 220

And made the eyes of Thebes see freedom's dawn ?
And shame on Hellas ! — I will hold my peace
Never, who prove her base towards my son, — •
Her, whom behoved with fire, with spear, with shield
To have helped these babes, thank-offering for his
toils, 225

Repayment for his purging seas and lands.
Ah boys, such aid to you the Thebans' town
Nor Hellas brings ! To me, a strengthless friend.
Ye look, who am nothing but a voice's sound :
For vanished is the might I had of old, 230

Palsied with eld my limbs are, gone my strength.
Were I but young yet, master of my thews,

36o EURIPIDES.

I had grasped a spear, this fellow's yellow hair

I had dashed with blood, that, seeing with craven

eyes
My lance, he had fled beyond the Atlantic bourn ! 235

Chorus.

Lo, cannot brave men find occasion still

For speech, how slow soe'er one be of tongue ?

Lykus.

Rail on at me with words up-piled as towers :
I will for words requite on thee ill deeds.
(To attendant) Ho ! bid my woodmen go — to Helicon
these, 240

Those to Parnassus' folds, 'and hew them logs
Of oak ; and, when these into Thebes are brought,
On either side the altar billets pile,
And kindle ; so the bodies of all these
Burn ye, that they may know that not the dead 245
Ruleth the land, but now am I king here.
And ye old men which set yourselves against
My purpose, not for Herakles' sons alone
Shall ye make moan, but for your homes' affliction.
Fast as blows fall, and so shall not forget 250

That ye are bondslaves of my princely power.

Chorus.

O brood of Earth, whom Ares sowed of yore.
What time he stripped the dragon's ravening jaws.
Will ye not lift the props of your right hands.
Your staves, and dash with blood the impious head 255
Of yon man, wiao, though no Kadmeian he,

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 361

Base outland upstart, ruleth the New Folk P^
Thou shalt not joy in lordship over me,
Nor that which I have gotten by toil of hand
Shalt thou have ! Hence with curses whence thou
cam'st ! 260

There outrage ! Whilst I live, thou ne'er shalt slay
Herakles' sons ! Not hidden in earth too deep
For help is he, though he hath left his babes.
Thou, ruin of this land, possessest her ;
And he, her saviour, faileth of his due ! 265

Am I a busy meddler then, who aid
Dead friends in plight where friends are needed most ?
Ah right hand, how thou yearn'st to grip the spear.
But in thy weakness know'st thy yearning vain !
Else had I smitten thy taunt of bondslave dumb, 270
And we had ruled with honour this our Thebes
Wherein thou joyest ! A city plagued with strife
And evil counsels thinketh not aright ;
Else never had she gotten thee for lord.

Megara.

Fathers, I thank you. Needs must friends be filled 275

W4th righteous indignation for friends' wrongs.

Yet for our sake through wrath against your lords

Suffer not scathe. Amphitryon, hearken thou

My counsel, if my words seem good to thee :

I love my sons, — how should I not love whom 280

I bare and toiled for ? — and to die I count

Fearful : yet — yet — against the inevitable

1 Perhaps a later influx of population (like the Plebeians
at Rome). Others would render, " the young men." Others
again would read lyyevutv or tCov irwv, " rules the native-
born."

362 EURIPIDES.

Who strives, I hold him but a foolish man.

Since we must needs die, better 'tis to die

Not with fire roasted, yielding laughter-scoflF 285

To foes, an evil worse than death to me.

Great is our debt of honour to our house : —

Thou hast been crowned with glorious battle-fame ;

Thou canst not, must not, die a coward's death :

Nor any witness needs my glorious spouse 290

That he would not consent to save these sons

Stained with ill-fame : for fathers gently born

Are crushed beneath the load of children's shame.

My lord's example I cannot thrust from me.

Thine own hope — mark how lightly I esteem it : 295

Thou think'st, from the underworld thy son shall come ;

Yet, of the dead, who hath returned from Hades ?

Or might we appease this wretch with words, think'st

thou ?
Never ! — of all foes must thou shun the churl.
To wise and nobly-nurtured foes give ground ; 300

So thy submission may find chivalrous grace.
Even now methought, " What if we asked for these
The boon of exile ? " — nay, 'twere misery
To give them life with wretched penury linked.
For upon exile-friends the eyes of hosts 305

Look kindly, say they, one day and no more.
Face death with us : it waits thee in any wise.
Thy noble blood I challenge, ancient friend.
Whoso with eager struggling would writhe out
From fate's net, folly is his eagerness. 310

For doom's decree shall no man disannul.

Chorus.

Had any outraged thee while yet mine arms

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 363

Were strong, right quickly had he ceased therefrom.
But now I am nought. 'Tis thine, Amphitryon, now
To search how thou shalt pierce misfortune's snares. 315

Amphitryon.

Nor cowardice nor life-craving holds me back

From death : but for my son 1 fain would save

His sons — I covet things past hope, meseems.

Lo, here my throat is ready for thy sword,

For stabbing, murdering, hurling from the rock. 320

Yet grant us twain one grace, I pray thee, king :

Slay me and this poor mother ere the lads,

That — sight unhallowed — we see not the boys

Gasping out life, and calling on their mother

And grandsire : in all else thine eager will 325

Work out ; for we have no defence from death.

Megara.

And, I beseech, to this grace add a grace,

To be twice benefactor to us twain : —

Open yon doors ; let me array my sons

In death's attire, — for now are we shut out, — 330

Their one inheritance from their father's halls.

Lykus.

So be it : I bid my men throw wide the doors.

Pass in ; adorn you : I begrudge no robes.

But, when ye have cast the arraying round your limbs,

I come, to give you to the nether world. 335

[_Exit.
Megara.

Children, attend your hapless mother's steps

364 EURIPIDES.

To your sire's halls, where others' mastery holds
His substance, but his name yet lingereth ours.

[Exit with childreti.

Amphitryon.

Zeus, for my couch -mate gained I thee in vain :

For nought I named thee father of my son. 340

Less than thou seemest art thou friend to us.

Mortal, in worth thy godhead I outdo :

Herakles' sons have I abandoned not.

Cunning wast thou to steal unto my couch, —

To filch another's right none tendered thee, — 345

Yet know'st not how to save thy dear ones now !

Thine is unwisdom, or injustice thine.

[Exit.

Chorus.'

{Str. i)
Hard on the paean triumphant-ringing

Oft Phoebus outpealeth a mourning-song.
O'er the strings of his harp of the voice sweet-
singing 350

Sweeping the plectrum of gold along.
I also of him who hath passed to the places

Of underworld gloom — be it Zeus' son's story,
Be Am.phitryon's scion the theme of my praises, —

I The Lay of the "Labours of Herakles": — i. The
Nemean Lion ; 11. The Centaurs; in. The golden-antlered
Hind ; iv. The horses of Diomede ; v. Kyknus the Robber ;
VI. The Golden Apples; vii. Extirpation of Pirates; viii.
Supporting the Pillars of Heaven ; ix. The girdle of the
Amazon Queen ; x. The Hydra ; xi. Geryon the three-bodied
giant ; xii. Cerberus. For 11, v, vii, viii, later writers sub-
stitute the Erymanthian Boar, the Augean Stables, the
Stymphalian Birds, and the Cretan Bull.

'

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 365

Sing : I am fain to uplift him before ye
Wreathed with the Twelve Toils' garland of
glory :
For the dead have a heritage, yea, have a

crown,
Even deathless memorial of deeds of renown.

I In Zeus' glen first, in the Lion's lair,

He fought, and the terror was no more there ; 360
But the tawny beast's grim jaws were veiling
His golden head, and behind swept, trailing

Over his shoulders, its fell of hair.

{Ant. i)

II Then on the mountain-haunters raining

Far-flying arrows, his hand laid low
The tameless tribes of the Centaurs, straining

Against them of old that deadly bow.
Peneius is witness, the lovely-gliding.

And the fields unsown over plains wide-spreading,
And the hamlets in glens of Pelion hiding, 370
And on Homole's borders many a steading,
Whence poured they with ruining hoofs down-
treading
Thessaly's harvests, for battle-brands
Tossing the mountain pines in their hands.

III And the Hind of the golden-antlered head.
And the dappled hide, which wont to spread

O'er the lands of the husbandmen stark deso-
lation,
He slew it, and brought, for propitiation,
Unto Oinoe's Goddess, the Huntress dread.

{Str. 2)

IV And on Diomede's chariot he rode, for he reined

them, 380

By his bits overmastered, the stallions four

366 EURIPIDES.

That had ravined at mangers of murder, and
stained them
With revel of banquets of horror, when gore
From men's Hmbs dripped that their fierce teeth
tore.

V Over eddies of tlebrus silvery-coihng

He passed to the great work yet to be done.
In the tasks of the lord of Mycenae toihng ;
By the surf mid the Maliac reefs ever boiling.
And by founts of Anaurus, he journeyed on, 390
Till the shaft from his string did the death-
challenge sing
Unto Kyknus the guest-slayer, Amphanae's king,
Who gave welcome to none.

{Ant. 2)

VI To the Song-maids he came, to the Garden enfolden

In glory of sunset, to pluck, where they grew
Mid the fruit-laden frondage the apples golden :
And the flame-hued dragon, the warder that draw-
All round it his terrible spires, he slew.

VII Through the rovers' gorges seaward-gaging 400

He sought ; and thereafter in peace might roam
All mariners plying the oars swift-racing :

VIII And he came to the mansion of Atlas, and placing

His arms outstretched 'neath the sky's mid-dome.
By his might he upbore the firmament's floor.
And the palace with splendour of stars fretted o'er.
The Immortals' home.

{Str. 3)

IX On the Amazon hosts upon war-steeds riding

By the shores of Maeotis, the river-meads green,
He fell ; for the surges of Euxine he cleft. 410
What brother in arms was in Hellas left,

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 367

That came not to follow his banner's guiding,
When to win the Belt of the Warrior Queen,
The golden clasp of the mantle vest,
He marched far north on a death-fraught quest ?
And the wild maid's spoils for a glory abiding
Greece won : in Mycenae they yet shall be seen.

X And the myriad heads he seared

Of the Hydra-fiend with flame, 420

Of the murderous hound Lyrnaean :

XI With its venom the arrows he smeared

That stung through the triple frame
Of the herdman-king Erythaean.

{Ant. 3)
Many courses beside hath he run, ever earning
Triumph ; but now to the dolorous land,

XII Unto Hades, hath sailed for his last toil-strife ;
And there hath he quenched his light of hfe

Utterly — woe for the unreturning ! 430

And of friends forlorn doth thy dwelling stand ;
And waits for thy children Charon's oar
By the river that none may repass any more,
Whither godless wrong hath sped them : and
yearning
We strain our eyes for a vanished hand.

But if mine were the youth and the might
Of old — were mine old friends here.
Might my spear but in battle be shaken,
1 had championed thy children in fight : — ■
But mid desolate days and drear 440

I am left, of my youth forsaken !

Lo where they come ! — the shrouds of burial cover
Each one, — the children of that Herakles

368 EURIPIDES.

Named the most mighty in the days past over, —
She whom he loved, whose hands draw onward
these
Like to a chariot's trace-led steeds, — the father

Stricken in years of Herakles ! — woe's me !
Fountains of tears within mine old eyes gather ;
How should I stay them, such a sight who
see ? 450

Enter Megara, Amphitryon, and children.

Megara.

Who is the priest, the butcher, of the ill-starred ?

Or who the murderer of my wretched life ?

Ready the victims are to lead to death.

O sons, a shameful chariot-team death-driven

Together, old men, mothers, babes, are we. 455

0 hapless doom of me and these my sons
Whom for the last time now mine eyes behold !

1 bare you, nursed you — all to be for foes
A scoff, a glee, a thing to be destroyed.
Woe and alas !

Ah for my shattered dreams, my broken hopes, 460

Hopes that I once built on your father's words !

Argos to thee' thy dead sire would allot :

Thou in Eurystheus' palace wast to dwell

In fair and rich Pelasgia's sceptred sway.

That beast's fell o'er thine head he wont to throw, 465

The lion's skin wherein himself went clad.

Thou^ shouldst be king of chariot-loving Thebes,

1 The eldest son, Therimachus.

2 The second son, Kreontidas.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 369

And hold the champaigns of mine heritage ;

Thy prayer won this of him that gave thee Hfe.

And to thy right hand would he yield the club, 470

A feigned gift, his carven battle-stay.

To thee' the land, by his far-smiting bow

Once wasted, promised he, Oechalia.

So with three princedoms would your sire exalt

His three sons, in his pride of your great hearts. 475

And I chose out the choice of Hellas' brides.

Linking to ours by marriage Athens' land,

And Thebes, and Sparta, that ye might, as ships

Moored by sheet-anchors, ride the storms of life.

All that is past : the wind of fate hath veered, 480

And given to you the Maids of Doom for brides.

Tears for my bride-baths. Woe for those my dreams !

And now your grandsire makes the spousal-feast

With Hades for brides' sire, grim marriage-kin.

Ah me ! which first of all, or which the last, 485

To mine heart shall I press ? — whom to my lips ?

Whom shall I clasp ? Oh but to gather store

Of moan, like brown-winged bee, from all grief's field,

And blend together in tribute of one tear !

Dear love, — if any in Hades of the dead 490

Can hear, — I cry this to thee, Herakles :

Thy sire, thy sons, are dying ; doomed am I,

I, once through thee called blest in all men's eyes.

Help ! — come ! — though as a shadow, yet appear !

For thou by that bare coming shouldst suffice 495

To daunt the cravens who would slay thy sons.

Amphitryon.

Lady, the death-rites duly order thou.

I The third son, Deikoon.
Vol. II. B b.

370 EURIPIDES.

But I, O Zeus, with hand to heaven upcast

Cry — if for these babes thou hast any help,

Save them ; for soon thou nothing shalt avail. 500

Yet oft hast thou been prayed : in vain I toil ;

For now, meseems, we cannot choose but die.

Ah friends, old friends, short is the span of life :

See ye pass through it blithely as ye may.

Wasting no time in grief 'twixt morn and eve. 505

For nothing careth Time to spare our hopes :

Swiftly he works his work, and fleets away.

See me, the observed of all observers once,

Doer of deeds of name — in one day all [510

Fortune hath snatched, as a feather skyward wafted.

None know I whose great wealth or high repute

Is sure. Farewell : for him that was your friend

Now for the last time, age-mates, have ye seen.

Herakles appears in the distance.

Megara.
Ha!
Ancient, my dear lord — else what ? — do I see ?

Amphitryon.

I know not, daughter, — speechless am I struck. 515

Megara.

'Tis he who lay, we heard, beneath the earth,'
Except in broad day we behold a dream !
What say I ? — see they dreams, these yearning eyes ?
This is none other, ancient, than thy son.

' I follow MSS. in giving 517 to Megara ; otherwise
Tt <l>rifXL ; seems pointless.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 371

Boys, hither ! — hang upon your father's cloak. 520

Speed ye, unhand him not ; for this is he,
Your helper he, no worse than Saviour Zeus.

Enter Herakles.

Herakles.

All hail, mine house, hail, portals of mine hearth !

How blithe, returned to light, I look on you !

Ha ! what is this ? — my sons before the halls 525

In death's attire and with heads chapleted ! —

And, mid a throng of men, my very wife ! —

My father weeping over some mischance !

Come, let me draw nigh these and question them. [530

Wife, what strange stroke hath fallen on mine house ?

Megara.

O best-beloved ! — to thy sire light of hfe !

Art come ? — art saved for friends' most desperate need ?

Herakles.

How ? — father, what confusion find I here ?

Megara.

We are at point to die ! — thy pardon, ancient,
That I before thee snatch thy right of speech, 535

For woman is more swift than man to mourn.
And my sons were to die, and I was doomed.

Herakles.

Apollo ! — what strange prelude to thy speech !

Megara.

Dead are my brethren and my grey-haired sire.

372 EURIPIDES.

Herakles.
How ? — by what deed, or stricken by what spear ? 540

Megara.
'Twas Lykus slew them, this land's upstart king.

Herakles.
Met in fair fight ? — or plague-struck was the land ?

Megara.
By faction. So he rules seven-gated Thebes.

Herakles.
Why fell on thee and on the old man dread ?

Megara.
Thy sire, thy sons, and me he fain would slay. 545

Herakles.
How ? — of my fatherless children what feared he ?

Megara.
Lest Kreon's death one day they might avenge.

Herakles.
This vesture meet for dead folk, what means it ?

Megara.
In this attire we shrouded us for death.

Herakles.
And were to die by violence ? — woe is me ! 550-

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 373

Megara.
Forlorn of friends, we heard that thou hadst died.

Herakles.
Wherefore came on you this despair of me ?

Megara.
The heralds of Eurystheus published this.

Herakles.
But why did ye forsake mine home and hearth ?

Megara.
By force : thy father from his bed was flung. 555

Herakles.
Had he no shame to outrage these grey hairs ?

Megara.
Shame ? — from that Goddess far his dwelling is !

Herakles.
So poor of friends am I when far away !

Megara.
Friends ! — what friends hath a man unfortunate ?

Herakles.
Scorned they the fights with Minyans I endured ? 560

Megara.
Friendless, I tell thee again, misfortune is.

374 EURIPIDES.

Herakles.

Fling from your hair these cerements of the grave :

Look up to the Hght, beholding with your eyes

Exchange right welcome from the nether-gloom.

And I — for now work lieth to mine hand — 565

Will first go, and will raze to earth the house

Of this new king, his impious head smite off

And cast to dogs to rend. Of Thebans, all

Found traitors after my good deeds to them,

Some will I slay with this victorious mace, 570

And the rest scatter with my feathered shafts,

With slaughter of corpses all Ismenus fill.

And Dirke's pure stream red with blood shall run.

For whom should I defend above my wife

And sons and aged sire ? Great toils, farewell ! 575

Vainly I wrought them, leaving these unhelped !

I ought defending these to die, if these

Die for their father : — else, what honour comes

Of hydra and of lion faced in fight

At king Eurystheus' bests, and from my sons 580

Death not averted ? How shall I be called

Herakles the Victorious, as of old ?

Chorus.

'Tis just the father should defend the sons,
The grey sire, and the yokemate of his life.

Amphitryon.

Son, worthy of thee it is to love thy friends, 585

To hate thy foes : yet be not over rash.

Herakles.

Herein what showeth, father, haste unmeet ?

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 375

Amphitryon.

The king hath many an ally, lackland knaves,

Fellows that have a name that they are rich,

Who sowed sedition, ruining the land, 590

To plunder neighbours, since their own estates,

Squandered by wasteful idleness, were gone.

Thou wast seen entering Thebes : since thou wast seen,

Let not foes gather, and thou fall unwares.

Herakles.

Though all the city saw me, nought reck I. 595

Yet, since I marked a bird in ominous place,
I knew that trouble on mine house had fallen,
And of set purpose entered secretly.

Amphitryon.

Go now, and hail thine hearth-gods with fair speech,

And show thy face to thine ancestral halls. 600

Himself, yon king, shall come to hale thy wife

And sons for murder, and to slaughter me.

If here thou bide, shall all go well with thee.

And thou shalt gain by surety. Stir not up

Thy city, ere thou hast ordered all things well. 605

Herakles.

I will : well said. I pass mine halls within.
Returned at last from sunless nether crypts
Of Hades and The Maid,' I will not shght
The Gods, but hail them first beneath my roof.

I A euphemism for Persephon^, whose name it was
perilous to utter. See Helen, 1. 1307.

376 EURIPIDES.

Amphitryon.
Son, didst thou verily go to Hades' halls ? 6io

Herakles.
Yea ; the three-headed hound I brought to light.

Amphitryon.
Vanquished in fight, or by the Goddess given ?

Kerakles.
In fight. 1 had seen the Mysteries — well for me !

Amphitryon.
How, is the monster in Eurystheus' halls ?

Herakles.
Nay, in Demeter's Grove, in Hermion's town. 615

Amphitryon.
Nor knows Eurystheus thou art risen to day ?

Herakles.
Nay ; hither first, to know your state, I came.

Amphitryon.
How wast thou so long time beneath the earth ?

Herakles.
From Hades rescuing Theseus, tarried I.

Amphitryon.
Where is he ? Hath he passed to his fatherland ? 620

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 377

Herakles.

To Athens, glad to have 'scaped the underworld.
Come, children, follow to the house your sire ;
For fairer to you is your entering-in
Than your outgoing. Nay then, pluck up heart,
And shed the tear-floods from your eyes no more ; 625
And rally thou, my wife, thy fainting spirit :
From trembling cease : and ye, let go my cloak.
I am no winged thing, nor would I fly my friends.
Ha !

These let not go, but hang upon my cloak
Only the more ! Was doom so imminent then ? 630
E'en must I lead them clinging to mine hands,
As ship that tows her boats. Not I reject
Care of my sons. Men's hearts be all like-framed :
They love their babes, as well the nobler sort.
As they that are but naught. In wealth they differ ; 635
These have, those lack : their children all men love.
[^Exeunt Herakles, Amphitryon, Megara, and children.

Chorus.

(Sir. i)
Ah, sweet is youth ! — but always eld,

On mine head weighing, downward drags,

A heavier load than lay the crags

Of Etna on the Titan quelled, 640

Muffling mine eyes in mantle-fold

Of gloom. Not mine be wealth that lies
In Asian tyrants' treasuries ;

Not mine be halls of hoarded gold.

If forfeit youth for these must fleet —
Youth, fairest gem of high estate.

378 EURIPIDES.

In lowliness most fair ! I hate
Age, dark with death's on-coming feet :

Deep be it drowned 'neath storm-waves' stress ! 650
Ah, would that ne'er such visitant
Had come, men's homes and towns to haunt,

That yet its wings flew shelterless !

{Ant. i)

If wisdom, as of sons of earth,

And understanding, dwelt in heaven.
Twice o'er the boon of youth were given,
Seal manifest of manhood's worth

On all true hearts : these from the grave

To the sun's light again should climb, 660

To run their course a second time ;

One life alone the vile should have.

Then, who are evil, who are good.
By such a sign might all men learn.
As shipmen 'twixt the clouds discern

The star-host's marshalled multitude.

But now, no line clear-severing

'Twixt good and bad the Gods have drawn : 670
Wealth, as the rolling years sweep on.
Is all the burden that they bring.

{Sir. 2)
The Muses shall for me be twined for ever with the

Graces :
For evermore my song shall pour that sweetest union's
praises.

No life be mine of songless clown,
But, where for singers shines the crown.
Mine old lips still shall hymn renown of Memory's fair
creation.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 379

Great Herakles the triumph-crowned my song extolleth
ever, 680

In feasts my theme, where beakers gleam of Bromius
wine-giver.

And where the lyre of sevenfold string
Sounds, and where Libyan ilutes outring :
Ceaseless I'll hear the Muses sing, queens of my

inspiration.

{Ant. 2)
As maids of Delos chant the paean's holy strain im-
mortal,
Whose white feet glance as sweeps the dance round
Leto's scion's portal, 690

So will I raise the pagan-lay,
Swan-song of singer hoary-grey :
The portals of thine halls to-day shall hear the old lips
chanting.

Proud theme hath minstrelsy, to sing mine hero's high

achieving :
He is Zeus' son, but deeds hath done whose glory
mounts, far-leaving

The praise of birth divine behind.
Whose toils gave peace to humankind.
Slaying dread shapes that filled man's mind with terrors
ceaseless-haunting. 700

Enter Lykus, attended. Re-enter Amphitryon.

Lykus.

So ! — in good time, Amphitryon, com'st thou forth.
Ye have tarried all too long as ye arrayed
Your limbs in robes and trappings of the grave.
Haste, bid the sons and wife of Herakles

38o EURIPIDES.

To show themselves forth-coming from these halls, 705
By your self-tendered covenant to die.

Amphitryon.

King, thou dost trample on my misery :

Thou heapest insult on the heart bereaved.

So strong and so impatient fits not thee.

But, since of force thou doomest me to die, 710

Of force must I content me and do thy will.

Lykus.

And Megara, and Alkmena's son's brood — where ?

Amphitryon.

I think that she — if one without may guess —

Lykus.

What now ? — for this thy thinking hast thou ground ?

Amphitryon.

Sits suppliant at the holy altar-steps, — 715

Lykus.

With bootless prayer to heaven to save her life !

Amphitryon.

And vainly calleth on a husband dead.

Lykus.

Not here is he ; nor shall he ever come.

Amphitryon.

Never, — except by a God raised from the dead.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 381

Lykus.
Go thou to her, and bring her forth the halls. 720

Amphitryon.
So doing were I partaker in her blood !

Lykus.

I then, — since this lies heavy on thy soul, —
Who am past all fear, will bring forth with her sons
This mother. Henchmen, hither, follow me.
With joy to sweep this hindrance from our path. 725

[^Exit.
Amphitryon.

Go thou where doom leads. For the rest, perchance,

Another shall take thought. Look thou for ill

To suffer ill ! Old friends, in happy hour

He paceth on : in toils of snaring swords [730

Shall he be trapped who thought to slay his neighbours.

The utter-vile ! I go to see him fall

Dead. Joy it is to see an enemy

Die, suffering vengeance for his ill deeds done.

[_Exit.
The members of the Chorus chant successively.^

Chorus i.

{Str. 1)

Ho for requital of wrong ! the king who was great

heretofore
Backward is turning the path of his life unto Hades'

door !

I The arrangement adopted by Paley is here followed.

382 EURIPIDES.

Chorus 2.

Hail, justice and river of fate back-turning with re-
fluent roar !

Chorus 3.

(Str. 2)

Thou com'st at last to pay death's penalty — 740

Chorus 4.

For outrage done to better men than thee.

Chorus 5.

(5^.. 3)
Gladness constraineth the fountain of tears from mine
eyelids to start.

Chorus 6.

Come is the hour which the land's king never ere this
in his heart

Foresaw, — retribution's vengeance-smart !

Chorus 7.

{Ant. 2)

Old friends, look ye within the halls, to see

Our soul's desire upon our enemy.

Lykus (within).

Ah me ! Woe's me !

Chorus 8.

{Ant. i)

Hark to the outburst ! — as music it is for mine ears to
hear 750

That strain ringing sweet through the halls : lo, death
is exceeding near.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 383

Chorus 9.

This king shrieketh prelude of slaughter : he shrieketh
in anguish of fear.

Lykus [within).

{Str. 4)
Oh Kadmus' land, by treachery am I slain !

Chorus 10.

As thou wouldst slay. Flinch not from vengeance-
pain :
Thine own deeds' retribution dost thou gain.

Chorus ii.

[Ant. 3)

Who was it, in lawlessness flouting the Gods, that

mortal wight
Who in folly blasphemed the Blessed that reign in the

heaven's height,

Saying that Gods be void of might ?

Chorus 12.

{Ant. 4)

Our foe is not : — such doom the impious earn. 760

Hushed are the halls. Now unto dances turn :

Blest are the dear ones over whom I yearn.

Chorus.

{Str. 5)

The dances, the dances are reeling, the shout of the

banqueters pealing

Through Thebes, through the city divine.

Now from affliction of tears cometh severance ;

Now from the thraldom of woe is deliverance.

And song is their heir.

384 EURIPIDES.

Gone is the tyrant, the upstart craven,
And enthroned is the ancient line
Re-arisen from Hades' drear ghost-haven: 770

Hope springs from despair.

{Ant. 5)
The Gods, O the Gods now are seahng unrighteousness'
doom, and revealing

The right, their eternal design.
But Gold and Fair-fortune, with Power the victorious
Harnessed beside them, in folly vainglorious

Hurry man to his doom : —
Law he outpaceth, and Lawlessness lasheth

To speed ; nor his heart doth incline
To take heed to the end — lo, his car sudden-crasheth
Shattered in gloom \^ 780

{Str. 6)
Deck thee with garlands, Ismenus, and ye

Break forth into dancing.
Streets stately with Thebes' fair masonry,
And Dirke bright-glancing :

Come, Maids of Asopus, to us, from the spring

Come ye of your father ;
Of Herakles' glorious triumph to sing,

Nymph-chorus, O gather,

Pythian forest-peak, Helicon's steep 790

Of the Song-queens haunted,

I The presumptuous wrong-doer is compared to a reck-
less charioteer in a race, in which he tries to outstrip the
rival chariot of Law. His four horses are. Gold and Pros-
perity as yoke-horses, with Power and Lawlessness for trace-
horses. In turning the goal-post, the driver had to rein in
the horses nearest it, lashing meanwhile the outer ones to
speed, just shaving the post with the nave of his wheel.
Any carelessness or miscalculation entailed a catastrophe.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 385

To my town, to my walls, let the song-echoes leap
Of the strains loud-chanted —

To my town, whence the Dragon-seed rose to the
day,

The warrior nation,
Whose sons guard the fathers' inheritance aye,

Thebes' light of salvation.

{Ant. 6)
Hail to the couch where the spousals divine

With the mortal were blended.
Where for love of the Lady of Perseus' line 800

Zeus' glory descended !

For thy bridal of old is my faith, Zeus, won,

Though I held it a story
Past credence : by time is the might of thy son

Revealed in its glory :

He hath burst from earth's dungeons, hath rifted the
chain

Of Pluto's deep prison !
Thou art worthier to rule than the churl-king slain,

O my King re-arisen ! 810

For now the usurper hath proved, when in fight

The sword-wielders have striven.
Whether yet, as in old time, the cause of the right
Is well-pleasing to heaven.
The forms of Iris and Madness appear above the palace.
Ha see ! ha see !
On you, on me, doth this same panic fall ?
Old friends, what phantom hovereth o'er the hall ?
Ah flee ! ah flee

Vol. II. C c.

386 EURIPIDES.

With haste of laggard feet ! — speed thou away !

Healer, to thee, 820

O King, to avert from me yon bane I pray !

Iris.

Fear not : this is the child of Night ye see,

Madness, grey sires : I, handmaid of the Gods,

Iris. We come not for your city's hurt.

Only on one man's house do we make war — 825

His, whom Zeus' and Alkmena's son they call.

For, till he had ended all his bitter toils.

Fate shielded him, and Father Zeus would not

That I, or Hera, wrought him ever harm.

But, now he hath toiled Eurystheus' labours through,

Hera will stain him with the blood of kin, [830

That he shall slay his sons : her will is mine.

On then, close up thine heart from touch of ruth,

O thou unwedded child of murky Night :

With madness thrill this man, with soul-turmoil 835

Child-murdering, with wild boundings of the feet :

Goad him ; the sheets of murder's sails let out.

That, when o'er Acheron's ferry his own hand

In blood hath sped his crown of goodly sons,

Then may he learn how dread is Hera's wrath, 840

And mine, against him : else the Gods must wane

And mortals wax, if he shall not be punished.

Madness.

Of noble sire and mother was I born,

Even of the blood of Uranus and Night.

But not to do despite to friends I hold 845

My powers, nor love to haunt for murder's sake.

Fain would I plead with Hera and with thee,

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 387

Ere she have erred, if ye will heed my words.

This man, against whose house ye thrust me on,

Nor on the earth is fameless, nor in heaven. 850

The pathless land, the wild sea, hath he tamed.

And the Gods' honours hath alone restored,

When these by impious men were overthrown.

Therefore I plead, devise no monstrous wrong.

Iris.

Dare not with thine admonitions trammel Hera's
schemes and mine ! 855

Madness.

Nay, I do but point a pathway meeter far to tread than

thine.

Iris.

Not to flaunt thy temperance hath she sent thee, Zeus's

bride divine.

Madness.

Witness, Sun, that I am doing that which I would fain
refuse :

Yet, if I must work thy will and Hera's — if I may not
choose.

But with skirr of rushing footfalls follow you like
huntsman's pack, 860

On will I ; nor sea nor moaning surges hurl such ruin-
wrack.

No, nor earthquake, no, nor madding thunder's gasping
agonies.

As the fury of mine onrush to the breast of Herakles.

I will rive his roofs, will swoop adown his halls : — his
children first

388 EURIPIDES.

I will slay ; nor shall the murderer know he slakes his
murder-thirst 865

On the children of his body, till my madness' course is run.

See him — lo, his head he tosses in the fearful race
begun !

See his gorgon-glaring eyeballs all in silence wildly
rolled !

Like a bull in act to charge, with fiery pantings uncon-
trolled [870

Awfully he bellows, howling to the fateful fiends of hell !

Wilder yet shall be thy dance, as peals my pipe's
appalling knell !

— Ay, unto Olympus soaring, Iris, tread thy path
serene !

Mine the task into the halls of Herakles to plunge un-
seen,

[Iris ascends, and Madness enters the palace.

Chorus.

Alas and alas ! cry out, O town,
For thy goodhest flower, Zeus' son, mown down!
Thy champion shall shp from thine hands, to thy

bitter cost,
Hellas ; in frenzied dances of madness tossed
Where the flute sounds not,' he is lost to thee,
lost!
She hath mounted her car, groans throng in her

train ;
She is goading her horses on mission of bane, 880

I The phenomena of Herakles' possession are spoken of
as a ghastly caricature of the merry dances in which the
revellers move to the sound of the flute, which is absent
here.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 389

Night's daughter, a Gorgon with hundred-headed

hiss
Of her serpents, Madness the ghttering-eyed is this.

Swiftly hath fortune o'erthrown him who sat on

high:
Swiftly the sons by the father's hand shall die.

Ah misery ! Zeus, mad vengeance ravenous-wild
Straightway, athirst for requital, with evils on evils

piled.
Shall trample thy son unto dust, as though he were

not thy child.

Woe for the palace-dome !
Her dance is beginning, but not with the cymbals
clashing, 890

Not with the pine-wand uptossed amid loud acclam-
ation,—

Woe for a hero's home ! —
But for shedding of blood, not the blood of the grape
glad-plashing
As the banqueters pour it forth for the Wine-god's
oblation.

Away, O ye children, in flight, for death.
Death shrieks through her pipe by the blast of her
breath !
[Cries and soicnd of rushing within.']

Like a hound is he holding the children in
chase ! —
Never shall Madness keep revel for nought through his
dwelling-place.

390 EURIPIDES.

Woe, anguish and pain !
Woe and alas for the silver hair goo

Of his father ! — woe for the mother who bare
His babes in vain !
l_Sound of battering and rending within. '\
Lo you, lo you !
A whirlwind is shaking the house — its roofs fall
crashing —
Ah what, ah what, Zeus' son, wouldst thou do ?
Down on thy palace the turmoil of hell art thou
dashing.
As the levin from Pallas's hand to the heart of Enkel-
adus flashing.

Enter Servant from within.

Servant.

O reverend presences hoary-white —

Chorus.

What meaneth thy cry unto me — thy cry of fear ? 910

Servant.

Within yon halls is a fearful sight !

Chorus.

No need, to attest thy tale, that we seek to a seer.

Servant.

Dead are the children — woe is me !

Chorus.

Wail ! well may ye wail ! — slain ruthlessly ! —
That their murder the hands of a father should
wreak !

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 391

Servant.

Things have we suffered no tongue may speak.

Chorus.

How, of the woeful doom by a father wrought
On his sons, canst thou tell ?
Say, say in what fashion the malice of Gods hath

brought
These ills on the house, and the fate with misery
fraught 920

On the children that fell.

Servant.

Victims were set before the hearth of Zeus

To cleanse the house, since, having slain the king,

Forth of these halls had Herakles flung the corpse.

And there his children stood in fair array, 925

His sire, and Megara. Round the altar now

The maund^ had passed ; and we kept hallowed hush.

Then, even in act to bear the torch in hand^

And plunge in lustral water, silent stood

Alkmena's son : and, as their sire delayed, 930

His sons looked — lo, he seemed no more the same.

But wholly marred, with rolling eyes distraught.

With bloodshot eye-roots starting from his head,

While dripped the slaver down his bearded cheek.

Suddenly with a maniac laugh he spake : 935

^ A basket containing the sacrificial knife and barley
was carried round the altar before the slaying of the
victim.

2 A brand from the altar was quenched in water, with
which the bystanders were then sprinkled.

392 EURIPIDES.

" Why, ere I slay Eurystheus, sacrifice,

Father — have cleansing fire and toil twice o'er.

When all in one act I may compass well ?

When hither I have brought Eurystheus' head,

For him, with these now slain, I'll purge my hands. 940

Spill ye the water, cast the niaunds away !

Ho there — my bow ! — the mace of my right hand !

I march against Mycenae : — I must take

Crowbars and mattocks, that yon Cyclop town,

Yon walls with red line and with gavil squared, 945

May by my bended lever be upheaved."

Then set forth, speaking of his car the while.

Who car had none, sprang to the chariot-rail.

And thrust, as who held in his hand a goad.

His henchmen, half in mirth and half in fear, 950

Were glancing each at other, and one spake :

" Doth our lord make us sport, or is he mad ? "

Still was he pacing up and down the house ;

Then, to the men's hall rushing, cried, " I have come

To Nisus' town ! "' — who stood in his own halls. 955

He casts him on the bare- floor, and prepares

To feast : yet, tarrying there but little space.

He cried, " I go to Isthmus' woodland plains ! "

Then from his body cast his mantle's folds,

And wrestled with — no man ! — proclaimed himself 960

Unto himself the victor, crying, " Hear ! "3 —

To none ! In fancy at Mycenae then

1 Megara, half way on his imaginary journey, on the
Isthmus of Corinth ; this suggested the Isthmian games.

2 Reading ws e;^ei.

3 The herald at the Games, before announcing the name
of the victor in a contest, called for the attention of the
spectators in the formula, " Hear, ye people ! "

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 393

He stormed against Eurystheus. But his sire

Clung to his brawny hand, and cried to him,

" O son, what ails thee ? What wild freak is this ? 965

Surely thou art not driven distraught by blood

Of these late slain ! " He deemed Eurystheus' sire,

A trembling suppliant, hung upon his hand,

And spurned him back ; prepared his quiver and bow

Against his own sons then, thinking to slay 970

Eurystheus' sons. They, quaking with affright.

Rushed hither, thither : his hapless mother's skirts

This sought, that to a pillar's shadow fled.

A third cowered 'neath the altar like a bird.

Then shrieked the mother, " Father, what dost thou ? 975

Wouldst slay thy sons ? " The thralls, the ancient,

cried.
He, winding round the pillar as wound his son
In fearful circlings, met him face to face
And shot him to the heart. Back as he fell,
His death-gasps dashed the column with red spray. 980
Then shouted Herakles, and vaunted thus :
" One of Eurystheus' fledglings here is slain.
Dead at my feet, hath paid for his sire's hate ! "
Against the next then aimed his bow, who crouched
At the altar's base, in hope to be unseen. 985

But, ere he shot, the poor child clasped his knees,
And stretching to his beard and neck a hand,
" Ah, dearest father," cried he, " slay not me !
I am thy boy — thine ! — 'Tis not Eurystheus' son ! "
He, rolling savage gorgon-glaring eyes, 990

Since the boy stood too near for that fell bow,
Swung back overhead his club, like forging-sledge,
Down dashed it on his own son's golden head,
And shattered all the bones. This second slain,

394 EURIPIDES.

He speeds to add to victims twain a third. 995

But first the wretched mother snatched the child,
And bare within, and barred the chamber-door.
But he, as though at siege of Cyclop walls,'
Mines, heaves up doors, and hurls the door-posts

down,
And with one arrow laid low wife and child : 1000

Then charges down to spill his old sire's blood.
But a Shape came, — as seemed unto our eyes,
Pallas with plumed helm, brandishing a spear ; —
And against Herakles' breast she hurled a rock
Which stayed him from his murder-frenzy, and cast 1005
Into deep sleep. To earth he fell, and dashed
His back against a pillar, cleft in twain
By the roof's ruin, on the pavement thrown.
Then we, from flight of panic breathing free.
Wrought with the old man, binding him with cords loio
Unto the pillar, that, awaked from sleep.
He might not add ill deeds to ill deeds done.
There sleeps he, wretched man, a sleep unblest.
Who hath slaughtered sons and wife. For me, I know

not
Of mortals any man more fortune-crost. 1015

Chorus.

That murder which Argos remembereth
Was aforetime through Hellas most famous, the strange
tale told

Of Danaus' daughters, the workers of death : —

But this hath surpassed, hath outrun, that horror of

old. 1020

I i.e. Of Eurystheus' city, Mycenae.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 395

I might tell of the sacrifice done to the Muses/ the

blood of a son
Of Zeus, who of Prokne was slaughtered, the only

child of her womb : —
But thou, who art father of children three, O unhappiest

one.
Together hast murdered them all, driven on by thy
madness's doom !

With what cry shall I wail thee, what sighing,
What chant as for dead that are lying in Hades, what
dirge of the tomb ?

Alas ! O see
How the bolts shde back, and asunder fall
The stately doors of the palace-hall. 1030

The palace is thrown open, and the scene within disclosed.

Ah me ! ah me !
Lo there the children — ah misery !
At the feet of their wretched father they lie :
And from murder of sons he is resting in awful sleep ;
And around him the bonds with manifold fastenings
keep

The body of Herakles in ward.
And lashed to the palace's pillars of stone are the coils
of the cord.
And that old sire, as bird that maketh moan
O'er fledghng brood, with footsteps eld-fordone 1040
Treading a bitter pathway, cometh on.

Amphitryon.

Ah peace, Kadmean fathers, peace !

I Meaning, that the legend of Prokn^'s murder of Itys
has, in becoming a theme of song, been, so to speak, conse-
crated to the Muses.

396 EURIPIDES.

Let his woes in oblivion a moment cease
By slumber's release.

Chorus,

With tears I bemoan thee, and these babes dead,

0 ancient, and that victorious head.

Amphitryon.

Withdraw you farther, beat not the breast,
Neither cry, neither break ye his slumbrous rest

Of calm-drawn breath. 1050

Chorus.

Woe's me for the river of blood he hath spilt ! —

Amphitryon.

Ah, your words be my death !

Chorus.

It is rising against him, a witness of guilt !

Amphitryon.

Let the wail of your dirge, ye ancients, softlier fall,
Lest he wake, lest he rend away his bonds, and in ruin

lay
Thebes, lest his father he slay, and shatter his palace-
hall.

Chorus.

1 cannot — my crying I cannot forbear !

Amphitryon.

Hush ! — let me hearken his breathing — bend low
mine ear —

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 397

Chorus.
Sleepeth he ? 1060

Amphitryon.

Yea — in a slumber of bane,
Who hath slain his wife, hath his children slain
With the string that sang them the bow's death-
strain !

Chorus.

Wail therefore —

Amphitryon.

I wail with thee.

Chorus.

His babes' death, —

Amphitryon.

Woe is me !

Chorus.

And thy son's doom !

Amphitryon.

Well-a-day !

Chorus.

Ah ancient —

Amphitryon.

O hush ye ! stay !
He is writhing— is turning— is waking ! Away !
Under yon roof let me hide me out of his sight ! 1070

398 EURIPIDES.

Chorus.

Fear not : on the eyes of thy son yet broodeth the
night.

Amphitryon.

Beware — O beware !
Not death do I shun, for a crown of the ills that I

bear —
Wretch that I am ! — but if me, if his father, he kill,
To his load of ill shall he add fresh ill.
And to heap up his debt to the Furies the blood of a
kinsman shall spill.

Chorus.

Then shouldst thou have died, when thou wentest forth

to requite
The blood of the kin of thy wife on the Taphians, to

smite [1080

Their city enringed with the surf-crests white.

Amphitryon.

Flee, ancients ! Afar from the dwelling flee !
From his frenzy of fury O hasten ye,
For he waketh from sleep !
Full soon on the deaths he hath wrought fresh deaths

shall he heap,
Through the city of Kadmus storming in awful revelry.

Chorus.

Ah Zeus, why this stern hate against thy son ?
Why hast thou brought him to this sea of ills ?

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 399

Herakles {waking and stirring.)

Ha!

Breathing I am — all I should see I see,

The sky, the earth, the shafts of yonder sun : 1090

Yet as in surge and storm of turmoiled soul

Am whelmed, and fiery-fervent breath I breathe

Hard-panted from my lungs, not tempered calm.

Ha ! — wherefore, like a ship by hawsers moored,

Ropes compassing my strong chest and mine arms,

Bound to half-shattered masonry of stone [1095

Sit I ? — lo, corpses neighbours to my seat !

Winged shafts and bow are strawn about the floor,

Which once, like armour-bearers to mine arms,

Warded my side, were kept of me in ward : 11 00

Sure, not to Hades have I again gone down.

Who have passed, repassed, Eurystheus' Hades-course ?

Nay, I see not the stone of Sisyphus,

Pluto, nor sceptre of Demeter's Child.

Distraught am I ? Know I not where I am ? 1105

Ho there ? of my friends who is near or far

To be physician to my 'wilderment ?

For clearly nought know I of wonted things.

Amphitryon.

Old friends, shall I draw near unto my grief ?

Chorus.

I too with thee, forsaking not thy woe. mo

Herakles.

Father, why dost thou weep and veil thine eyes.
Shrinking afar from thy beloved son ?

400 EURIPIDES.

Amphitryon.
My son ! — ay, mine, though ne'er so ill thy plight !

Herakles.
Am I in grievous plight, that thou shouldst weep ?

Amphitryon.

Plight whereat Gods might groan, were God so

stricken! m5

Herakles.

Great words ! — but what hath chanced thou say'st not

yet.

Amphitryon.

Thyself may'st see, if now thy wit be sound.

Herakles.
Speak, if thou shadowest forth strange ills for me.

Amphitryon.
I will say^ — so thy frenzy of hell be past.

Herakles.
Again that word ! — ha, what dark riddle this ? 1120

Amphitryon.
Yea, if thy mind be sober yet I doubt —

Herakles.
Nought I remember of a frenzied mind.

Amphitryon.
Fathers, shall I unbind my son, or no ?

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 401

Herakles.
Yea, name who bound me ! — / disown the deed.'

Amphitryon.
Know thou so far thine ills : — the rest let be. 1125

Herakles.
Enough ! — I would not from thy silence learn.^

Amphitryon [unbinding him).
Zeus, seest thou this curse hurled from Hera's throne ?

Herakles.
Ha ! have I suffered mischief of her hate ?

Amphitryon.
Let be the Goddess : thine own miseries heed.

Herakles.
I am undone ! What ruin wilt thou tell ? 1130

Amphitryon.
Lo, mark these fallen wrecks, — wrecks of thy sons !

1 Whatever outrage I may have committed, it was not /
who bound Herakles. Or, as Paley suggests, " I disown the
man," repudiate all friendship with him ; which may account
for the caution of the next line, not to make bad worse.

2 Or, with a slight alteration of text, " Suffice thy silence :
I crave not to know." According to either interpretation,
Herakles gathers from his father's reticence some inkling of
the meaning of the scene of slaughter round him, and dares
question no further. Heath's correction gives a more com-
monplace sense — " Shall silence tell the thing I fain would
know ? "

Vol. II. D d.

402 EURIPIDES.

Herakles.
Woe's me ! ah wretch, what sight do I behold ?

Amphitryon.
Unnatural war, son, waged against thy babes.

Herakles.

What war mean'st thou ? Who hath done these to
death ?

Amphitryon.

Thou, and thy bow — and whatso God was cause. 1135

Herakles.
How ? — what did I ? — O ill-reporting sire !

Amphitryon.
In madness. Heavy enlightening cravest thou !

Herakles.
Ha ! am I murderer of my wife withal ?

Amphitryon.
Yea : all these deeds are work of one hand — thine.

Herakles.
Alas ! a cloud of groaning shrouds me round ! 11 40

Amphitryon.
For this cause heavily mourn I thy mischance.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 403

Herakles.
Did I — / — wreck mine house, or lead wild revel ?'

Amphitryon.

One thing I know — thy state is ruin all.

Herakles.

Where did my frenzy seize me ? — where destroy ?

Amphitryon.

As thine hand touched the altar's cleansing fire. 1145

Herakles.

Woe's me ! Ah wherefore spare I mine own life,

Who am found the murderer of my dear, dear sons,

And rush not to plunge headlong from a cliff,

Or dash a dagger down into mine heart,

And make me avenger of my children's blood, 1150

Or with consuming fire burn this my flesh,

To avert the imminent life-long infamy ?

But lo, to thwart my purposes of death,

Theseus draws nigh, my kinsman and my friend.

I shall be seen ! — this curse of children's blood 1155

Shall meet a friend's eyes, dearest of my friends !

Woe ! What shall I do ? — where find solitude

In ills ? — take wings, or plunge beneath the ground ?

Come, let me in pall of darkness shroud mine head ;

For I take shame for evils wrought of me, 11 60

Nor would I taint him with bloodguiltiness — ^

Nay, nowise would I harm the innocent.

J Lead a riotous band of drunken revellers to wreck it.

I As though the mere sight of a murderer conveyed con-
tamination. Reading roiSe . . . Trpocr^aAwv.

404 EURIPIDES.

Enter Theseus, with attendants.

Theseus.

I come, with them that by Asopus' stream

In arms are tarrying, Athens' warrior sons,

Ancient, to bring thy son my battle-aid. 1165

For rumour came to the Erechthei'ds' town

That Lykus, this land's sceptred sway usurped.

For war had risen against you, and for fight.

And to requite the service done of him

Who out of Hades saved me, come I, ancient, 1170

If aught ye need mine hand or mine allies.

Ha ! wherefore bears the earth this load of dead ?

Have I been laggard ? — have I come too late

To stay fell mischief ? Who could slay these boys ?

Whose wife is she, this woman that I see ? ii75

Not boys, good sooth, are ranged to face the spear !'

Sure, some unheard-of outrage here I find !

Amphitryon.

King, lord of the mount with the olives crowned —

Theseus.

Why hail'st thou me with preluding of woe ?

Amphitryon. [1180

Sore ills at the hands of the Gods have we found !

Theseus.

What lads be these, for whom thou weepest so ?

I A reference to 1. 1168 ; meaning, " There can have been
no true fight here, since these are corpses, not of men, but
of children."

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 405

Amphitryon.

My son was their father — alas and alas for him —
Their father — and slew them ! — who dared that
murder grim !

Theseus.

Hush ! Speak not horrors thou !

Amphitryon.

Ah, would that I could but obey thy word !

Theseus.

Dread things thou sayest now !

Amphitryon.

Pled is our bliss, as on wings of a bird.

Theseus.

What sayest thou ? — how wrought he deed so dread ?

Amphitryon.

Upon madness's surge was his soul tossed wide,
And his shafts in the blood of the hydra of hundred
heads were dyed. 1190

Theseus.

Lo, Hera's work ! Who croucheth midst yon dead ?

Amphitryon.

My son is it — mine — of the thousand toils, who stood
In the ranks of the Gods, stood slaying the giant-brood
On the Plain of Phlegra, a warrior good.

4o6 EURIPIDES.

Theseus.

Woe ! when was man by fate so ill-bestead ?

Amphitryon.

None other of mortal men shalt thou see
Who hath burden of heavier griefs, was more dreadly
misguided than he.

Theseus.

Why doth he veil with cloaks his hapless head ?

Amphitryon.

For shame that thine eyes such sight should win,
Shame for the pitying love of kin, 1200

For his sons' blood shame — for the madness, the sin !

Theseus.

Unveil — 'twas sympathy my steps that led.

Amphitryon.

Son, cast from thine eyes thy mantle's veil ;

Fling it hence ; thy face to the sun forth show.
Lo, a weight that outweigheth thy tears bears down

grief's scale !^

I bow me in suppliance low
At thy beard, at thy knee, at thine hand, till thou hear :

And mine old eyes drop the tear.
O son, refrain thou the furious lion's mood ! 12 10

' The claims of sympathizing friendship may well out-
weigh those of absorbing grief.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 407

Thou wouldst speed on a race unhallowed, a path of

blood, I
Who art minded to swell with evil evil's flood.

Theseus.

Ho ! thee in spirit-broken session crouched

I hail — reveal unto thy friends thy face. 12 15

There is no darkness hath a pall so black

That it should hide the misery of thy woes.

Why wave me back with hand that warns of blood ?

Lest some pollution of thy speech taint me ?

Nought reck I of misfortune, shared with thee. 1220

Fair lot hath found me— I date it from that hour

When safe to day thou brought'st me from the dead.

Friends' gratitude that waxeth old I hate,

Hate him who would enjoy friends' sunshine-tide,

But will not in misfortune sail with them. 1225

Stand up, unmuffle thou thine hapless head :

Look on me : who of men is royal-souled

Beareth the blows of heaven, and flincheth not.

[_Unveils Herakles.']
Herakles.

Theseus, hast seen mine onslaught on my babes ?

Theseus.
I have heard : the ills thou namest I behold. 1230

Herakles.
Why then unveil mine head unto the sun ?

' From Herakles' silence he infers that he intends to
execute the purpose of suicide expressed 11. 1146-1152.

4o8 EURIPIDES.

Theseus.
Why ? — mortal, thou canst not pollute the heavens.

Herakles.
Flee, hapless, my pollution god-accurst !

Theseus.
No haunting curse can pass from friend to friend.

Herakles.
Now nay ! — yet thanks. I helped thee, nor repent. 1235

Theseus.
I for that kindness now compassionate thee.

Herakles.
Compassion- worthy am I, who slew my sons !

Theseus.
I weep for thy sake, for thy fortune changed.

Herakles.
Hast thou known any whelmed in deeper woes ?

Theseus.
From earth to heaven reach thy calamities. 1240

Herakles.
Therefore have I prepared my soul to die.

Theseus.
Deem'st thou that Gods reck aught of threats of thine ?

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 409

Herakles.
Reckless is God — 1, reckless of the Gods.^

Theseus.
Refrain lips, lest high words bring deeper woes !

Herakles.
Full-fraught am I with woes — no space for more. 1245

Theseus.
What wilt thou do ? — whither art passion-hurled ?

Herakles.
To death. I pass to Hades, whence I came.

Theseus.
No hero's words be these that thou hast said.

Herakles.
Thou dost rebuke me — clear of misery thou !

Theseus.
Speaks Herakles, who hath endured so much, — 1250

Herakles.
Never so much ! — its bounds endurance hath.*

1 "The old king hurled his curse against God : ' Since
Thou hast taken from me the town I loved best, where I
was born and bred, and where my father lies buried, I will
have my revenge on Thee too — I will rob Thee of that thing
Thou lovest most in me.' " — Green's Hist, of Eng. People.

2 Reading iv for MS. et, which seems to mean "if such
toils may be gauged," i.e. if in such gigantic labours as mine,
one may talk of greater or less.

410 EURIPIDES.

Theseus.
Men's benefactor and their mighty friend ?

Herakles.
They cannot help, for Hera's might prevails.

Theseus.
Hellas will brook not this fool's death for thee.

Herakles.

Hearken, that I may wrestle in argument 1255

With thine admonishings. I will unfold

Why now, as heretofore, boots not to live.

First, I am his son, who, with blood-guilt stained

From murder of my mother's aged sire.

Wedded Alkmena who gave birth to me. 1260

When the foundation of the race is laid

In sin, needs must the issue be ill-starred.

And Zeus — whoe'er Zeus be — begat me foe

To Hera, — nay but, ancient, be not chafed,

For truer father thee I count than Zeus. 1265

When I was yet a suckling, Zeus's bride

Sent gorgon-glaring serpents secretly

Against my cradle, that I might be slain.

Soon as I gathered vesture of brawny flesh.

What boots to tell what labours I endured ? 1270

What lions, what three-bodied Typhon-fiends,

Or giants, slew I not ? — or with what host

Of fourfoot Centaurs fought not out the war ?

The hound o'erswarmed with heads that severed grew,

The Hydra, killed I : throngs of toils beside 1275

Untold I wrought : I passed unto the dead

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 411

To bring forth at Eurystheus' hest to light

The hound three-headed, warder of Hell-gate.

And this— woe's me ! — my latest desperate deed,

Murder — mine house's topstone — my sons' blood! 1280

I am come to this strait — in my dear-loved Thebes

I cannot dwell uncursed. Though I should stay,

To what fane can I go ? — what gathering

Of friends ? — the Accurst, to whom no man may speak !

Shall I to Argos ? — I, an outlawed man ! 1285

Come then, to another city let me go —

And there be eyed askance, a branded man,

My jailers there the scorpions of the tongue —

" Lo there Zeus' son, who murdered babes and wife !

Shall he not hence ? — perdition go with him ! " 1290

Now to the man called happy in time past

Reverse is torture : he whose days were dark

Always, grieves not, being cradled in distress.

And to this misery shall I come, I ween ;

For earth shall find a voice forbidding me 1295

To touch her, and the sea, that I cross not,

And river springs : so, like Ixion whirled

In chains upon his wheel shall I become.

Best so — that none of Greeks set eyes on me

Amongst whom once I prospered and was blest. 1300

Why need I live ? What profit shall I have

Owning a useless life,^ a life accurst ?

Now let her dance, that glorious bride of Zeus,

Beating with sandalled foot Olympus' floor !

She hath compassed her desire that she desired, 1305

Down with his pedestal hurling in utter wreck

The foremost man of Greece ! To such a Goddess

I Others read ^axpeiov, " a life of penury accurst."

412 EURIPIDES.

Who shall pray now ? — who, for a woman's sake

Jealous of Zeus, from Hellas hath cut off

Her benefactors, guiltless though they were ! 1310

Chorus.

This is the assault of none of deities

Save Zeus's Queen : this thou divinest well.

Theseus.

[Think not that I would bid thee flee to death],

Rather than bid thee suffer and be strong.^

No mortal hath escaped misfortune's taint,

Nor God — if minstrel-legends be not false. 13 15

Have they not linked them in unlawful bonds

Of wedlock, and with chains, to win them thrones,

Outraged their fathers ? In Olympus still

They dwell, by their transgressions unabashed.

What wilt thou plead, if, mortal as thou art, 1320

Thou chafe against thy fate, and Gods do not ?

^ So Paley : but, besides assuming a lacuna after 1312
(which he supplies as above), he thus transfers 131 1 — 12
from Theseus, to whom the MSS. assign them, to the chorus,
his chief reason, apparently, being that such a seemingly
obvious, wise-after-the-eveiit remark could be fathered on a
chorus only. It is of this nature, certainly, if it be taken as
an independent pronouncement, not logically linked with
the argument which follows. But if it be regarded as a
concessive preface, an acknowledgment of a fact in spite of
which Theseus does not agree with Herakles, it would not
inappropriately commence his speech. I therefore propose,
for ev ToS" atcr^aiet, to read ovSe. aol Oavelv, the sense then
being

" This is the assault of none of deities
Save Zeus's Queen : yet thee I counsel not
Rather to die than suffer and be strong."
This seems to make a somewhat closer logical sequence
than Nauck's €i t6S' alaOavei dvTto-^ctv Kaxots.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 413

Nay then, leave Thebes, submissive to the law,

And unto Pallas' fortress come with me.

There will I cleanse thine hands from taint of blood.

Give thee a home,' and of my substance half. 1325

The gifts my people gave for children saved

Twice seven, when I slew the Knossian bull.

These will I give thee. All throughout the land

Have I demesnes assigned me : these shall bear

Thy name henceforth with men while thou shalt live.

And, when in death thou goest to Hades' halls, [1330

With sacrifice and monuments of stone

Shall all the Athenians' Town exalt thy name :

For a fair crown to win from Greeks is this

For us, the glory of a hero helped. ^335

Yea, this requital will I render thee

For saving me ; for now thou lackest friends.

When the Gods honour us, we need not friends :

God's help sufficeth, when he wills it so.

Herakles.

Ah, to mine ills this hath no pertinence ! 1340

I deem not that the Gods for spousals crave

Unhallowed : tales of Gods' hands manacled

Ever I scorned, nor ever will believe,

Nor that one God is born another's lord.

For God hath need — if God indeed he be — ^345

Of nought : these be the minstrels' sorry tales.

Yet thus I have mused — how deep soe'er in ills —

' Paley prefers to translate, " Give to thee shrines,"
assuming that Euripides is thinking of the worship, before
their death, rendered to Herakles and Theseus, as mentioned
by Plutarch. What follows (especially 133 1 — 3) is hardly
consistent with this view.

414 EURIPIDES.

" Shall I quit life, and haply prove me craven ? "

For he who knoweth not, being mortal-born,

To bear misfortune as a man should bear,

He even before a mere man's spear would blench. 1350

I will be strong to await death. To thy town

I go. For thy gifts thanks a thousandfold.

Ah, I have tasted travail measureless,

Nor ever flinched from any, never shed

Tear from mine eyes, no, nor had ever thought 1355

That I should come to this, to weep the tear !

But now, meseems, I must be thrall to fate.

Ay so ! — thou seest, ancient, mine exile ;

Thou seest me a murderer of my sons.

Give these a tomb, and shroud the dead, with tears

For honour, — me the law withholds therefrom, — [1360

Laid on the mother's breast, clasped in her arms,

Sad fellowship, which I — O wretch ! — destroyed

Unknowing. When thou hast hid them in the tomb,

Live on in Thebes, — in misery, yet still 1365

Constrain thy soul to share my load of woe.

Ah children, your begetter and your sire

Slew you ! — ye had no profit of my glory,

Of all my travail and strenuous toil^ to win

Renown for you — a sire's best legacy. 1370

And thee, lost love, not in such wise I slew

As thou didst save, didst keep mine honour safe

Through all that weary warding of mine house !*

Woe for my wife and children ! woe for me !

1 Retaining MS. /3ia. Editors generally adopt the em-
endation piov, " Of all my travail and toil to win for you
An honoured life — ."

2 The period of his long absence when the wife had been
warder of his house.

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 415

How mournful is my plight, who am disyoked i375

From babes, from bride ! Ah bitter joy of kisses !

Ah bitter fellowship of these mine arms !

Keep — cast them from me — I know not which to do.

Hanging athwart my side thus will they say :

" With us thou slewest babes and wife — yet keep'st 1380

Thy children'' s slayers ! " Shall mine hand bear these ?

What can I plead ? Yet, naked of mine arms^

Wherewith I wrought most glorious deeds in Greece,

'Neath foes' feet shall I cast me ? — foully die ?

Leave them I may not, to my grief must keep. 1385

In one thing help me, Theseus : come to Argos

To back my claim of hire for Cerberus brought,

Lest grief for children slay me faring lone.

0 Land of Kadmus, all ye Theban folk,

With shorn hair grieve with me : to my sons' tomb 1390
Pass, and in one wail make ye moan for all —
The dead and me : we have wholly perished all,
Smitten by one sore doom from Hera's hand.

Theseus.

Rise, sorrow-stricken : let these tears suffice.

Herakles.

1 cannot : lo, my limbs are palsy-chained. i395

Theseus.
O yea, misfortune breaketh down the strong.

^ He could not replace them by others as good ; for they
were gifts of Gods — the bow of Apollo, and the club of
Hephaestus.

4i6 EURIPIDES.

Herakles.
Woe worth the day !
Ah to be turned to stone, my woes forgot !

Theseus.
No more ! To a friend, a helper, reach thine hand.

Herakles.
With this blood let me not besmirch thy robes !

Theseus.
On me wipe all off ! Spare not : I refuse not ! 1400

Herakles.
Of sons bereaved, thee have I, like a son.

Theseus.
Cast o'er my neck thine arm ; I lead thee on.

Herakles.

A yoke of love ! — but one, a stricken man.
Father, well may one gain such friend as this.

Amphitryon.

The land that bare him breedeth noble sons ! 1405

Herakles.

Theseus, let me turn back, to see my babes.

Theseus.

What spell to ease thy pain hath this for thee ?

THE MADNESS OF HERAKLES. 417

Herakles.
I yearn — and on my father's breast would fall.

Amphitryon.
Lo here, my son : mine heart as thine is fain.

Theseus.
Art thou so all-forgetful of thy toils ?^ 1410

Herakles.
All toils endured of old were light by these.

Theseus.
Who sees thee play the woman thus shall scorn.

Herakles.
Live I, thy scorn ? — Once was I not, I trow !

Theseus.
Alas, yes ! Where is glorious Herakles ?

Herakles.
W^hat manner of man wast thou mid Hades' woes ? 1415

Theseus.
My strength of soul was utter weakness then.

Herakles.
Were't then for thee to say that ills crush me ?

Theseus.
On then !

I Of the Twelve Great Labours, of which this weakness
is unworthy.

Vol. n. E e.

4i8 EURIPIDES.

Herakles.

Farewell, old sire.

Amphitryon.

Farewell thou, son.
Herakles.

Bury the lads-

Amphitryon.

Who burieth me, my child ?

Herakles.

I—

Amphitryon.

When com'st thou ?

Herakles.
When thou hast buried them — 1420

Amphitryon.

How ?

Herakles.

I from Thebes to Athens will bring thee.
Bear in my babes — this curse that loads the earth !'
I, who have wasted by my shame mine house,
Like wreck in tow will trail in Theseus' wake.
Whoso would fain possess or wealth or strength 1425
Rather than loyal friends, is sense-bereft.

Chorus.

With mourning and weeping sore do we pass away,
Who have lost the chiefest of all our friends this day.

[^Exeunt otnnes.

I Their unnatural death made their presence a pollution
to the land.

END OF VOL. II.

The Alcestis, Medea, and Hecuba, are published separately in
paper wrapper, price i/6 each.

THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES

IN ENGLISH VERSE.

BY

ARTHUR S. WAY, M.A.

/« 3 vols. Vol. I, price 6/- net.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

" His accomplished performances in Homeric translation should
certainly procure a cordial reception for these scholarly renderings,
admirably calculated and apparently intended — if we may judge from
the separate publication of each of the three plays of the Alcesiis,
Medea, and Hecuba — to stimulate the youthful student's appreciation
of Greek Tragedy." — Times.

" The rendering is good. Mr. Way has very considerable skill as a
writer of blank verse. . . The lyrics for the most part go with great
swing." — Saturday Review. [On first three plays published in advance.]

" Something more than an ordinary welcome seems to be due to this
volume. Mr. Way's version is faithful. It is poetical. It affords a
good idea of the original. A play read through in his translation may
be appreciated as a real piece of literature. ... In the iambic
passages, Mr. Way has translated line-for-line. . . In the lyrics, he
has given himself a freer hand, and has produced some really fine
poetry. . . The more advanced student, and especially the intelligent
lover of literature who does not read Greek with ease, will be genuinely
grateful to Mr. Way for having enabled them to appreciate for them-
selves the genius of Euripides." — Athenaum.

"We have only congratulations to give him. The six plays in this
volume are rendered into choice English and accomplished rhythms ;
indeed Mr. Way's wealth of metrical variety is remarkable. . . It is
in the choric lyrics, with their singular beauty of phrase and movement,
that Mr. Way has excelled. Apart from all questions of scholarship
and fidelity, he has produced translations that are fine poems ; and his
poetical felicity is not purchased at the expense of accuracy . . Such
work is worth many wordy essays, which comes to no conclusion : from
Mr. Way's volume the reader, however little of a scholar he be, will
catch much of the original spirit. ' Soft Pity's Priest,' to take the
phrase of Dr. Warton, appears now for the first time in the fulness of
his glory before English readers : the sad and splendid poet of a
thousand faults, who yet, without insincerity and with exquisite art,
' wept tears of perfect moan.' " — Daily Chronicle.

" To the schoolboy with a natural taste for good literature, but who
has to spell out his ' Greek play construe' in painful gobbets of twenty
or fifty lines two or three times a week, it will come as a revelation and
surprise that he has been reading poetry without knowing it — and
exciting poetry too. For the general reader — if we can imagine one
likely to take up this book, but so innocent of the classics as never to
have heard the name of Euripides or his plays — we believe that, if he
were a man of judgment, he would hail Mr. Way's volume as the work

of a great dramatist, so successfully has the translator escaped from the
trammels of the Greek . . He has brought Euripides home to us, and
we do not know how to pay him a greater compliment." — St. James's
Gazette.

" After producing the best existing translation of Homer in English
verse . . Mr. Way has turned to Euripides . . it was not only
because the ground was unoccupied that he embarked on his task, but
because he had found in Euripides a kindred soul. . . The young
scholar who would fain unsphere the soul of Euripides will be grateful
for such a piece of embodied criticism as Mr. Way's sympathetic ver-
sion, so faithful to the spirit of the Greek, and at the same time to the
genius of the English language." — Journal of Education.

" His latest achievement in this sphere of literary work will not lower
the high reputation gained for him by his respective renderings of
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. To all who wish for a trustworthy metric
version of the plays of Euripides, Mr. Way's admirable workmanship
may be cordially commended." — Leeds Mercury,

" While it is scholarly in the sense of giving a scholar's attention to
peculiar shades of meaning in the Greek, it is free enough to be also
poetical. . . Students will find his renderings profitable and stimu-
lating to an intelligent interest in the dramas. But a general reader
ignorant of Greek, who wished access to the richest monuments of
the ancient classical literature, could find no better introduction to
Euripides than this." — Scotsman.

" So far Mr. Way is to be congratulated on his success. There is no
doubt ihat Mr. Way, by his skill in translating the choruses, secures for
them the interest of the English reader to at least a proportionate ex-
tent to that with which they were regarded by those who saw the tragedies
acted in the Athenian Theatre. . . If Mr. Way keeps up the spirit
and general excellence of his present volume in those that are to come,
Euripides will probably not require to be again rendered as a whole for
British readers for another hundred years." — Glasgow Herald.

" Mr. Way won his spurs as a translator by his versions of the Iliad
and Odyssey ; he certainly will not lose them by the present work, if
vols, ii and iii prove as good as vol. i. ... So far as we know,
Euripides has nowhere else been so vigorously presented. . . . Mr.
Way has deserved thoroughly well of Euripides — not the least, perhaps
in the very fine prefatory sonnet to him." — Academy.

" His industry as a translator is not more conspicuous than his merit.
. . We can unreservedly congratulate Mr. Way; for we are much
mistaken if this work, (of translation from the Classics), has not been
the recreation of a lifetime ; . . it must surely be delightful to own
a favourite pursuit which can produce honourable and useful results.
Useful the book is designed to be, and we have found it an extremely
close and reliable rendering of the iambic passages. . . The more
we have looked at it, with or apart from the original, the better we have
liked it. In the more difficult task of rendering lyrical passages, it is at
least equally successful, and the preface contains some excellent
remarks upon this matter." — Spectator.

" Mr. Way is already favourably known to the public by his excellent
verse translations of the Iliad and Odyssey. There is obviously a
demand for the work he has taken in hand ; no complete translation of
Euripides has appeared since 17S3. . . It is a real feat to combine
such vigour and lilt with lineforline fidelity. . . The small points
which the Momus of verbal criticism has here noted are as nothing
compared to the genuine spirit inspiring the whole, and the ingenuity
displayed in most of the lyrical passages. Enough to say that a reading
of this volume has enabled the reviewer for the first time fully to
appreciate the mastery of human feeling which is the secret of the
longevity of Euripides, and the utter flimsiness of many of Schlegel's
cavillings." — Speaker.

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